
Class _, 



Book 



COPYRrCHT DEPOSIT 



A 




IN THE 



^,a 






BY 



HARRIET L. ADAMS. 



WOMAN'S 

JOURNEYINGS 



IN THE 



NKW NOI^THWKST 

BY 

/ 

HARRIET L. ADAIVES. 



CLEVELAND, OHIO I 

B-P PRINTING CO., 

1892. 



H L J '^t X ' 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1892, 

By Harriet L. Adams. 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, 

At Washington, D. C. 



f 



TO 

All the Women, 

Whether inside or outside the realm of White 

Ribbon, who bore a part of my burdens 

and cheered me on my way, 

These "Journeyings" are lovingly dedicated. 

H. L. A. 



PREFACE. 



In placing this simple and hastily written 
account of personal experience before the public, I 
wish to say that I am not unmindful of the fact that 
the haps and mishaps falling to the lot of an indi- 
vidual are not supposed to possess a high degree of 
interest for the world at large ; but having read 
many scholarly dissertations on the West, and os- 
tensibly graphic descriptions of Western life, with- 
out having received other than a vague impression 
much of which was erroneous and quickly vanished 
upon personal observation, I have taken the liberty 
of presuming that there are others under like im- 
pressions, and that to such, a plain statement of ac- 
tual occurrences, while possessing no great merit, 
may be helpful in some small particular. As a con- 
sequence, I have endeavored to narrate lucidly what 
1 saw, what 1 heard and the impressions 1 received ; 
which has necessitated a relation of what I did, and 
what I said. If the reader thinks the writer is given 



too much prominence, I beg his or her forbearance, 
on the plea that where one is both actor and chron- 
icler, self cannot well be ignored. 

With these few words of explanation, and the 
sincere wish that the following pages may bring 
something of information or amusement to all to 
whose notice they come, I submit them to the 
mercy of the reading public, of which I have no 
reason to complain, without further remarks. 

Harriet L. Adams. 
Cleveland^ Ohio. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. — A wide awake face— An important conductor — 
The Bad Lands— Chinamen's camp— Rocky building lots. 

CHAPTER II.— Cheney's lakes— Awakened by Indians— Afraid 
of lightning — Indians celebrate the Fourth — Buying a 
"cayuse." 

CHAPTER III.— Egypt— A balking team— Entrance to Coulee 
City— Western horsewomanship —Stock raising by women. 

CHAPTER IV. -Spokane Falls— Hillside wheatfields— 
Misleading names — How I went to Pine City — Medical 
Lake— Weary overlanders. 

CHAPTER v.— Yews and ferns —Beauties of Puget Sound— 
A rainbow — On the Straits of San Juan de Fuca — Picking 
blackberries late in October — The "Infidel Colony." 

CHAPTER VI.— Anight ride on Lopez Island— Tons of straw- 
berries — A unique concert- Aground in an open boat — 
La Conner — "No Bar Hotel." 

CHAPTER VII.— Taking up, and holding down, a claim— "The 
Devil's Bread Pan"— Mud — Port Townsend— Something of 
a storm. 

CHAPTER VIII —Hotel de Haro— Everybody go aft— Clams— 
The long suffering cow— Seattle Y. M. C. A.— Olympia's 
why's. 



CHAPTER IX.— Portland's novel feature— Willamette 
Yalley — "Webfeet" and "Mossbacks"— Early settlers — 
Landslides. 

CHAPTER X.— Chill, damp misery— Climbmg heights and 
fathoming depths — Elkton's gem — My first sight of the 
Pacific Ocean — Going to the Coquille River — Ashland. 

CHAPTER XI.— An Indian woman and the U. P. R. R. Co.— 
Climbing the heights at Bridal Veil Falls— The Dalles- 
Experience at Grants — Visit to a jail. 

CHAPTER XII.— Sage brush— Mountain Home rabbits— A 
town on wheels — Attending a Mormon meeting — Some 
remarks on Mormonism. 

CHAPTER XIII.— Where the women vote— Hilda— The Ames 
Monument — Some ministers — Not an equal equality 

CHAPTER XIV, — Last scenes of the panorama — Nebraska 
drouths — Intelligent women — Omaha — Over nine thousand 
miles— Thanks. 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 



CHAPTER I. 

Slijaving long purposed making a trip to that 
(^^J- much "boomed" but at that time by me un- 
traversed country known by the various titles, 
"The West," ''The Coast" and the 'Pacific Slope," 
on Monday, May 5th, 1890, I took a west-bound 
train on the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern R. 
R., from Cleveland, Ohio, with no particular ob- 
jective point except a cabin on a bunch-grass ranch 
in Eastern Washington, where I expected to 
make a short visit, but feeling fully equipped for 
my journeyings in the possession of a talisman 
in the form of a letter of introduction and com- 
mendation from Miss Frances E. Willard, presi- 
dent of the National Woman's Christian Temper- 
ance Union, who had, also, kindly opened the 
way for me by sending before me word of my 
coming. 

The freshness of the May verdure as seen 
from the car window between Cleveland and 
Chicago was soothing to nerves long suffering 



]0 A woman's journeyings 

from overwork and worry, but full familiarity 
with the scenery of the route rendered it without 
other interest. I arrived in the latter city about 
nine o'clock the same night, and as my route was 
over the Northern Pacific R. R, the eastern ter- 
minus of which is reached at St. Paul by way of 
the Wisconsin Central, from Chicago, I was has- 
tening towards a transfer carriage for the latter 
road under the triple burden of traveling bag, 
lunch basket and rug-strap bundle when a clear, 
strong voice pronounced my name but a few feet 
distant. 

As the thought of a telegram flitted through 
my brain, I turned in the direction from whence 
the voice had come, and answered at random to 
the wilderness of moving forms, ''That's me." 

Immediately a wide awake face was thrust 
through the swaying mass of heads, and the same 
voice that had uttered the name said : '' Mr. 
Campbell wired me from Cleveland, and I'm to 
see you to your sleeper at the Wisconsin Central 
Depot." 

Then I began to, see clearly. Mr. Tom D. 
Campbell, the district passenger agent stationed 
at Cleveland for the Northern Pacific R. R. had 
agreed to telegraph for sleeping car accommoda- 
tions and had assured me that all proper courte- 
sies would be extended by the officials of the Wis- 
consin Central; but I had not expected to meet 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 11 

with such a helpful reception at the outset. 

A fuller solution of the matter came out, how- 



ever, when my escort added, " I understand you 
are a W. C. T. U. woman, and although we look 
after all our passengers, I was determined not to 
miss you." 

As we were being driven over to the Wiscon- 
sin Central Depot the young man told me of his 
efforts to break the liquor fiend's bonds, by which 
he had himself been held— how he had twice 
thrown them off, and as many times taken them 
on again, but at last, by force of will and con- 
stant activity of body and mind in proper chan- 
nels, had then held the habit of drink back for 
more than a year. 

" You will understand," said he, " why I take 
such an interest in the temperance women's 
work." 

And when I thought of the national, state and 
municipal governments all combined in proffer- 
ing the cup to the young man's lips ; and strong 
manhood wistfully grasping the hand of woman 
for aid in the endeavor to withstand such tempta- 
tion, I could only wonder why woman was not 
made the stronger instead of the weaker vessel. 

Eleven o'clock saw me at rest in a comfortable 
'' sleeper" speeding away towards St. Paul. The 
night was cool, but Tuesday morning came in 



12 A WOMAN^S JOURNETIKGS 

bright and clear, and as I sat in our cozy car, with 
the sunny view outside, and the happy notes of 
two canaries, owned by fellow travelers, inside, 
the long journey of over two thousand miles lying 
between me and my first stopping point, lost its 
aspect of weariness. The only inharmonious oc- 
currence of the day was the visit of a conductor 
who took charge of the train at one point. That 
oflScial entered our. car (and the others also, as I 
afterwards learned,) seemingly entertaining the 
idea that the people before him were all possessed 
of brains of inferior calibre or blighted activity, 
the emanations from which should be looked upon 
by him with a superior and unswerving disdain. 
As might have been expected, considering the in- 
telligence of the traveling public of America, he 
met with some obstacles. From where I sat' I 
could see women's faces flush as he spoke to them, 
and simple looking countrymen cower before his 
all-sufficient manner. Remembering it was said 
that a bear would, often, pass on harmlessly if 
one sat still and pointed something at it, I simply 
held forth my ticket in speechless suspense. But 
when he pocketed it and handed me in exchange 
a penciled card showing the limit for which my 
ticket had called reduced by two days, I felt com- 
pelled to ask if the card would hold good in case 
of delay. 

**You have nothing to do with that. You 
have only to keep this card and show it when you 



11^ THE I^EW I^^ORTHWEST. 13 

are asked," said he, as he tapped the seat arm 
with his pencil and gazed up at the ceiling of the 
car. 

Between a strong desire to laugh and the 
sense of a swift wave of heat sweeping up to my 
usually cool department of thought, I was dumb 
for a moment, but then managed to say civilly, 
"I only asked for information. The matter was 
talked over before starting, and the limit was 
made to avoid confusion in case of delay, I be- 
lieve." 

He then informed me that he paid no atten- 
tion to ticket agents ; that they had no right to 
issue such tickets; that he ''knew his business" 
and did not intend to make an exception in one 
case among the '• many thousands " he had to deal 
with. 

And then — I arose, bodily from my seat and 
mentally to the occasion, and, endeavoring to ob- 
serve the proprieties by holding my voice down 
to that pitch said to be "an excellent thing in a 
woman," and prefacing my remarks with the con- 
ventional '* beg pardon," I told the man I believed 
I knew my rights, duties and privileges in the 
matter, and that unless he assured me I would 
have no trouble from his curtailment of the limit 
of my ticket, and apologized for his unseemly 
conduct, I would report him to his superiors from 
the first telegraph station. 



14 

Immediately such expressions as '*Good!" 
*' That's right!" coming from different parts of 
the car convinced me that I had gained the good 
will of my fellow travelers, whatever the final 
result might be. 

I hardly expected to hear anything more from 
the conductor, and was preparing my telegram, 
when he returned and made full apology ; in con- 
sideration of which I mention no names. 

Night came on, Tuesday, soon after leaving 
Brainerd, Minn., and morning found us near San- 
born, N. D. The day was simply perfect, and the 
passengers amused themselves by watching for 
prairie dogs and rabbits, which were enjoying the 
sunshine. In fact, there was nothing else of in- 
terest for the eye to rest on ; the entire distance 
to Bismarck showing nothing but gray, rolling 
prairie, with here and there deposits of pure 
alkali, and tiny and, often, abandoned cab- 
ins with long distances between. A few school- 
houses were among the latter, their location sug- 
gesting the idea that they had been dropped ready- 
made, from the sky, and at once explaining the 
sufferings of teachers and pupils in winter, of 
which Eastern people read so many accounts. 
One thing gave me a favorable impression regard- 
ing the humanity of the fearless pioneers who are 
endeavoring to bring those plains into blossom 
and bearing, and that is, they harness their oxen. 



IK THE KEW NORTHWEST. 15 

In the settlements where I saw oxen working, I 
observed that the heavy, irksome yoke had been 
done away with, breast straps and traces being 
substituted. The Department of Mercy of the W. 
C. T. U. may make a note of this. 

Several hours west of Bismarck we came into 
scenery presenting such a startling contrast to 
that through which we had passed as to cause 
the most apathetic to gaze in wonder; and the 
question, ''Could this ev-r have been done with- 
out hands?" asked by one passenger, was quickly 
answered by another with, "It is too stupendous 
to ever have been done by hands." The section 
of country into which we entered, and which is 
known as ''The Bad Lands," is made up of de- 
tached hills of solid rock, many of them perfectly 
bare at the base and summit and with nothing 
but sparse grass patches covering the intermed- 
iate space. By some process of nature so far be- 
yond the full grasp of the finite mind that the 
theories of geologists shed but little certain light 
upon it, these hills have been worn into most 
wonderful and artistic shapes. Rude models for 
churches, castles and cottages; for forts, ships, 
lighthouses and many other products of human 
mechanism are to be seen on every hand. The 
section is said to be rich in minerals, and the fu- 
ture millionaires who shall dig their fortunes in 
silver or gold out of those rocks can plan their 



16 A WOMAJS^'S JOURNEYTNGS 

domiciles from those patterns by the Great Arch- 
itect of all. 

Darkness overtook us atGlendive, Mont., and 
the early morning light showed us the smart town 
of Billings, in the same state. Soon the snow- 
capped peaks of the '^Rockies" began to stand out 
through the blue haze in which they were envel- 
oped, and eye-straining and exclamations were 
renewed. At a small station called Big Timber, 
where the train stopped about half an hour, the 
ground each side of the track was covered with 
yellow mountain daisies, and in a twinkling a 
hundred or more passengers were gathering bo- 
quets and taking in the exhilarating air with all 
the enjoyment of children in the "fresh air 
camps'' of less pretensions. During the day. as 
the train wound in and out among the rocks and 
labored up steep inclines, it brought us now and 
then to little towns bright and soft with spring 
verdure— emerald gems set in granite, which had 
been produced by laborious irrigation, but were 
very restful to the overstrained eyes of sight- 
seers. In truth, some of the cozy little homes 
wrought out and maintained in those rugged 
v^ilds through privation and effort not easily esti- 
mated by those fresh from Eastern comforts and 
facilities were inviting enough to tempt one to 
turn away from the more advanced civilization 
and find recompense in the humility taught by 
the mightiness of God's handiwork. 



IN THE i^EW NORTHWEST. 17 

But there were, also, sights that repelled the 
finer senses. The blighting effects of alcohol and 
tobacco were everywhere present; and I was 
forced to wonder why men could not find suffic- 
ient vent for their destructive tendencies in raz- 
ing those ruder of God's temples — the everlasting 
hills, without turning to rend the finer — their 
own bodies. As the train stopped at Elliston, a 
gentleman who had visited the town told me that 
of its thirty business places, eleven were saloons. 
Yet Elliston is not, nor are the Montana towns 
generally, worse than other places. 

AtDrummond, (Mont.,) we again sought our 
berths, awaking at Trout Creek station; in Idaho, 
to find an entire change in weather and vegeta- 
tion. The scenery of dusty earth — except where 
irrigated — and clear sky had changed to fresh 
green foliage interspersed with flowers, and 
clouds that dripped so copiously as to create 
foaming rills and sadly interfere with the com- 
fort of the lone miners camped on the mountain 
sides, who, with a trust that would be sublime 
did it not lead to such ludicrous predicaments, 
start out on prospecting tours provided with noth- 
ing but a blanket to interpose between their bod- 
ies and the granite beneath and heavens above. 
As we passed on through what is known as the 
*' Coeur d'Alene country," which was at the height 
of a mining *'boom" at the time, numbers of Chi- 
namen, who are great surface miners, were to be 



18 A WOMAN'S JOURNEYINGS 

seen grouped together in tents near the stations, 
and as they gazed disconsolately from under the 
dripping flaps, their spare, dark faces, wearing 
the habitual homesick look, presented a pitiful 
spectacle. I noticed one, however, who had evi- 
dently grown callous or superior to his hard lot, 
and was ladling soup from an open kettle in the 
pouring rain to his companions, with a grim dis- 
regard of surroundings or outraged stomachs. 

We soon reached the dividing line between 
Idaho and Washington, and at eleven o'clock ar- 
rived at Spokane Falls. There the train made a 
halt of about half an hour, but from our point of 
view it was impossible to form any idea of the 
place further than that it had the natural prom- 
ise of becoming a town of respectable dimen- 
sions, inasmuch as it was located, like many of 
our large cities, in a spot where nature never in- 
tended anything else to exist. I judged, too, that 
its citizens were equal to the task they had under- 
taken in attempting to build a town, as I noticed 
several places where the boulders, which cover 
the earth in many spots, had been carefully ar- 
ranged in square groups and fenced in as a 
foundation upon which to build building lots. I 
afterwards made several visits to the city, of 
which mention is made farther on, and found my 
first judgment verified. 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 1^ 



CHAPTER 11. 

^heney, twenty miles west of Spokane Falls, 
was my point of disembarkation from the 
**overland" train, and is the junction with the Cen- 
tral Washington, which road I was to take for Wil- 
bur, a small town in Lincoln county, in the ^^Big 
Bend country," and known to the earlier settlers 
and explorers as Wild Goose Bill's ranch. Arriv- 
ing at Cheney about one o'clock, I sought the res- 
idence of Mrs. Lucy A. Switzer, president of the 
Eastern Washington W. C. T. U., but, finding 
her absent, presented my letters of introduction 
to her husband, who at once gave me a cordial 
welcome to Washington. Cheney is one of the 
older and also pleasanter towns of Washington 
east of the Cascade range of mountains, and is 
about two thousand feet above sea level. Evi- 
dences of volcanic eruptions are everywhere to 
be seen in the vicinity, the town itself being near- 
ly surrounded by small lakes, which are but old 
craters filled with water. These lakes are to be 



20 A WOMAN^'S JOUKNEYIXGS 

found in all stages of advancement towards terra 
firma, from those having but a fringe of reeds at 
the edge, to those having but a small surface of 
water surrounded by a sedgy marsh. Many, too, 
have entirely grown in and formed solid earth 
upon which towns are now standing, having been 
built there from the attractions of level ground 
and water, which last is always to be found in 
those places. Timber is found wherever there is 
water, and the most pleasing natural feature of 
■Cheney is its pine trees. 

After a stop of about three hours, I took the 
train for Wilbur, arriving about ten o'clock the 
same night. Upon inquiring for a hotel, a sleepy- 
looking boy, sitting on the front seat of a mud- 
bespattered spring wagon, said, ^'This yer's the 
hack," and invited me to get in. 

But that was a feat beyond my training in 
physical culture; as the "hack" stood three or 
four feet from the platform, and the platform was 
about the same distance from the ground. See- 
ing the situation, the station agent finally came 
to my assistance, and the dejected team of '' cay- 
uses " was induced to back up within reach. The 
hotel was a building of, perhaps, a dozen rooms, 
constructed entirely of rough fir lumber, and not 
furnished with all the modern conveniences; but 
when the proprietor told me he was born in Ohio, 
and was "awful glad to see anybody from there," 



IX THE NEW NORTHWEST. 21 

and that he would give me the best room he had 
vacant, although it was "no great shucks," I 
felt such a sense of relief from concern regarding^ 
my unknown surroundings that the remaining^ 
discomforts seemed of small importance. 

In the morning I was awakened by voices be- 
side my window, and peeping out, saw that a 
party of Indians mounted on ])onies had halted 
there to decide some question, the purport of 
which I could not catch. The squaws fluttered 
their bright blankets by rapid gesticulations, the 
males shook their heads in stubborn disapproval, 
and I concluded the grotesqueness of the scene 
was sufficient recompense for my broken slum- 
ber, although I had felt much impatience at be- 
ing disturbed. After breakfast, having to wait 
for a conveyance to go into the country, I took a 
seat on the rude, unshaded platform at the front 
of the hotel, and passed the time till noon m mak- 
ing inquiries of the proprietor, his wife and oth- 
ers regarding the country, and answering ques- 
tions concerning the East. 

*'rd like to go East, but I wouldn't like to be 
struck by lightnin'," said a lithe-looking youngs 
man as he sat on the edge of the platform amus- 
ing himself by whirling a lariat, which persist- 
ently^ fell short of the mark, toward the faintly* 
animate skeleton of a "cay use" tethered near. 

Thinking the expression ''struck by light- 



22 A woman's journeyings 

ning" contained some Western witticism with 
which I was not yet familiar, I asked for an ex- 
planation, and found that among the people born 
west of the Rocky Mountains, where thunder- 
storms seldom occur, one of the prevailing im- 
pressions regarding the East is that people are in 
imminent danger of losing their lives by light- 
ning. Highly amused, I told the young man that 
as he had thus far escaped being ''struck by a rat- 
tler" while threading the Columbia's rocky banks, 
but a few miles distant, Eastern lightning should 
have no terrors for him, but could not overcome 
^he delusion. Another idea indulged in by na- 
tives of the Pacific Slope is that during the sum- 
mer, Eastern people suffer greatly from lack of 
sleep, on account of the excessive heat. The full 
absurdity of this latter idea did not dawn upon 
my mind until in July, when, after retiring with 
the thermometer near a hundred, I would be 
awakened by a sense of cold that could only be 
overcome by all the blankets necessary in Decem- 
ber. Having a preference for heat rather than 
cold, and remembering the luxurious temperature 
of properly ventilated rooms in the East in July, 
I was not, probably, a fair subject for conversion 
to the belief that the West was "the best country 
in the world to sleep in, " as Western people as- 
severate. 

Wilbur is, or, rather, was at the time of my 



IN THy NEW NORTHWEST. 23 

arrival, a halting place for miners going to and 
from the Salmon River mines; for bands of Indi- 
ans in their ceaseless and, apparently, aimless 
ramblings; and the trading point for farmers and 
ranchmen for many miles around. Numerous 
saloons furnish sufficient water of discord — open- 
ly to the whites and stealthily to the Indians — to 
keep the sound of gun-shots from entirely dying 
out, and, although such scenes were said to be on 
the wane, I was told that on the last Fourth of 
July, the Indians, filled with liquor furnished by 
their civilized white brothers, had executed a 
style of war-dance through the streets that sent 
men, women and children to the shelter of the 
cabins, with heads * 'ducked" to dodge bullets and 
none of the grace of the holiday promenade in 
their gaits. 

Soon after noon a young man arrived to take 
me into the country, and I prepared for a trip of 
nine miles by wagon. We were soon out on the 
rolling, bunch-grass plains, and as the day was 
bright, everything seemed auspicious except a 
breeze from the north, which was thought to be a 
balmy zephyr by my companion, but which in 
striking my face brought the sensation of being 
pierced by numbers of fine needle points. I after- 
wards learned that such was the experience of 
many newcomers, but nobody had discovered the 
cause. Noticing a general absence of water as 



24 A WOMAi^'S JOURNETINGS 

we passed along, I asked how stock could live in 
such a country. 

" Oh, there are some springs, but the cattle go 
to the draws as long as there is any water in 
them, and then they go to the river," was the an- 
swer. 

''What is a draw ?" I asked. 

"Why, they are— a draw is— well, Corby's 
draw is just ahead, and you can see it for your- 
self," said my companion. 

We soon came to a grassy pond similar to 
those produced by spring freshets everywhere, 
but called a ^' draw " in eastern Washington Xor 
some reason which nobody could explain. These 
ponds dry out as soon as the spring rains cease, 
and leave the surface of the country destitute of 
water except that coming from springs, which are 
truly "few and far between." Yet, water is 
found at a depth of from fifteen to fifty feet below 
the surface in most parts of the Big Bend country, 
and the great need seems to be drilling apparatus 
that will withstand the broken volcanic rock into 
which it is necessary to pierce. 

Four miles from our destination we came to 
Hesseltine, a town consisting of a deserted cot- 
tage and a rough board cabin, or " shack," as those 
buildings are often called, in which a postoffice 
was kept by a woman. A small tent, just large 



IK THE NEW XORTHWEST. 25 

enough for a single cot, was pitched near the 
postoffice, and a "buckskin" pony, which means, 
simply, a pony of a yellow color, was hitched to 
a post as we drove up and asked for the mail for 
the ranch to which I was going. As a large bun- 
dle of Sunday School literature was handed out, 
I began to wonder where a sufficient number of 
children could be found to receive instruction 
from it, but was assured there were 'Aplenty of 
children," which I found to be true, not only in 
that vicinity, but everywhere in the West. Chil- 
dren swarm on the Pacific Slope almost as thick 
as the salmon in the streams, but there are few 
dullards among them. No matter how meagre 
the . opportunities for acquiring knowledge 
chanced to be, native ability beamed out from 
youthful eyes everywhere ; and the great charm 
of Western childhood is that it is a youthful, and 
not an adult childhood, such as is often seen 
in the East. 

As we neared the ranch, the aspect of the 
country improved, the ground being covered with 
flowers of all hues, and the bunch grass seeming 
to have doubled in height and fullness. 

I spoke of the change, and my companion re- 
marked, ''Yes, mother took up the claim herself 
and got a good one. It has a living spring on it 
besides ; " which, considering the rare combinatioa 
of living water and fertility, in that country of 



26 A woman's JOURI^EYIIS'GS 

uncertain possibilities, I accepted as a compli- 
ment to woman's judgment. 

After remaining at the ranch a few days, I 
concluded to purchase a saddle horse with which 
to view the country ; as such a thing as a road- 
cart or light buggy was not to be found within 
fifty miles. So I sent for an Indian trader, and 
the next evening a man rode up leading a strong, 
chestnut pony profusely decorated with hiero- 
glyphics left on his shining coat by the branding 
irons of different owners. Prompted by my 
friends, I began the list of questions said to be 
necessary for a purchase. 

'' Will he buck ? " I asked. 

^' No, lady, I don't think he'll buck. He don't 
buck with me, and I had a j^oung lady ride him 
yesterday," was the answer. 

In view of the sotto voce remark of one of my 
friends that the young lady referred to would 
mount a pony that ^ 'never knew a cinch," the an- 
swer was not reassuring, but I persevered. 

''Will he bite?" 

"Well, really I don't just know, but you 
might be on the lookout." 

"Is he sound?" 

"Yes, I believe he is perfectly sound. ** 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 37 

'' What do you ask for him ? " 

''Fifteen dollars. He's worth twenty-five." 

Feeling that horse buying under such circum- 
stances was but a lottery, with fair chances for 
breaking one's neck, I concluded to end the farce 
of questioning, and offered the man ten dollars, 
which he readily accepted and rode away over the 
hills. 

Having the pony turned into a field for the 
night, the next morning I learned the full import 
of the advice, "First catch your hare." No 
amount of cajoling would bring that pony's fore- 
lock within grasping distance, and finally he had 
to be captured by stretching a rope with a man 
at each end and forcing him into a corner, where 
he lacerated himself on the sharp wires of the 
fence before submitting to the bridle. Yet I rode 
him eight miles the same day, and found him so 
susceptible to kindness that, although the out- 
bound journey was marked by some vicious 
plunges and stubborn refusals to answer the rein, 
the homeward trip was made in perfect harmony, 
with occasional backward glances by the pony, 
evidently made to convince himself as to what 
new sort of passenger he carried, who did not 
strike him with cruel spurs nor belabor him with 
knotted rope. These "cayuses," as they are 
called, are very wise little animals, and when 
properly treated are as kind as wise ; the disposi- 



28 A woman's joukneyings 

tion to kick, bite or ''buck " being but the natural 
instinct of self preservation. They are burdened 
with heavy saddles, girted, or "cinched," as it is 
called in the West, to a state of breathlessness 
and then mounted and lacerated with murderous 
rowels till a merciful person experiences a feeling 
of actual delight upon seeing a rider shot out over 
a "bucking" head and landed ignominiously in 
the dust. 

At the end of a few weeks, having received 
letters from Mrs. Switzer, I very regretfully part- 
ed with my pony, and returning to Wilbur, took 
the train for Davenport, in the same county, 
which place I was to make my headquarters while 
organizing W. C. T. Unions and filling lecture 
appointments in the Big Bend country. 



I>sr THE NEW N-ORTHWEST. 39 



CHAPTER III. 

rriving at Davenport, I found it to be a some- 
what older town than Wilbur, having once 
been the county seat, and being the point from 
which supplies were shipped by wagon for Fort 
Spokane, on the Columbia, twenty-five miles dis- 
tant. Finding the treasurer of the E. Washing- 
ton W. a T. U., Mrs. Rena G. McArthur, whose 
husband. Rev. J. A. McArthur, was pastor of the 
Presbyterian church, I soon secured quarters and 
awaited the action of the State president. On her 
arrival, arrangements were made that Mrs. C. H. 
Pryor, county superintendent of schools for Lin- 
coln county and also W. C. T. U. vice-president 
for the same, should take charge of the matter of 
appointments in her territory. Not having met 
Mrs. Pryor, I immediately pictured her in my 
mind as a woman nearing middle age, and as a 
consequence, when I was called to the parlor on 
her arrival, I was somewhat surprised to see a 
small figure with a bright, open, girlish face rise 
to meet me. But I soon discovered there was 
sufficient ability and determination in the make- 



30 A WOMAl^'S JOURNEYIKGS 

up of the owner to carry her through the perform- 
ance of any duty she would willingly assume. 
Mrs. Pry or is the county school superintendent 1 
whose third election to that office was contested 
the following autumn on the ground of ineligibil- 
ity, and led to the decision of the Washington 
courts that women, although voters on school 
matters, could not legally hold office in the state. 

"Egypt will be first on the list of appoint- 
ments," said Mrs. Pryor, and seeing me smile as 1 
the suggestion the name brought came to me, 
added, " but it is not a place of darkness." 

So, to Egypt I journeyed by stage a few 
mornings afterward. The town of Egypt, or, 
more properly, settlement, is on the stage road 
from Davenport to Fort Spokane and lies in one 
of the most pleasant and productive sections of 
Eastern Washington. The principal product is 
wheat, and the yield promised to be enormous. I 
had seen no native trees for several weeks, but 
now passed through lovely pine groves, and as I 
inhaled the grateful terebinthine odor, I thanked 
Mrs. Pryor in my heart for sending me to Egypt. 
She afterwards told me she had made that ap- 
pointment first, with a view to counteracting any 
unpleasant impression I might have received of 
the country ; from which it may be inferred that 
the impressions received by strangers are not al- 
ways highly pleasing. 



IN- THE KEW NORTHWEST. 31 

I found my hostess at Egypt an intelligent 
young woman who had gone to the West as a 
teacher, and having married one of the many 
bachelor land owners, was the mistress of a pleas- 
ant home, made doubly inviting by order and ar- 
tistic taste. There being no church building, the 
meeting was held in the schoolhouse, which was 
filled to overflowing. A man was chosen to intro- 
duce the speaker, but being rather deaf, and, con- 
sequently, not catching his hastily given instruc- 
tions clearly, he performed his task by making 
the announcement, ''Mrs. Scott, of Spokane Falls, 
will now address the meeting on the important 
subject of temperance.^' 

I was somewhat surprised by that sudden 
transformation of my identity and place of resi- 
dence, but managed to at once put in a disclaimer 
to any desire to appear under an alias. At the 
close of the meeting I succeeded in organizing a 
Union, nearly all of the principal women becom- 
ing members. On our way home we were sud- 
denly halted by the balking of one of the half -bro- 
ken horses of a span just ahead of ours, and a 
number of mothers having babes with them, my 
hostess among them, were on the ground in a 
moment. The night was intensely dark, and be- 
ing entirely ignorant of my surroundings, I con- 
cluded to court no new dangers, but risk the stam- 
peding of our own team, which seemed to be the 



32 A woman's journeyii^gs 

fear, and remain in the wagon. That proved to 
be the better plan, as matters soon quieted down, 
but the babies had been so hopelessly mixed in 
the darkness that much time was consumed in re- 
storing- them to their respective mammas. Under 
such circumstances as those were the wide awake 
Washington women raising future presidents and 
at the same time casting their influence into the 
balance against unrighteousness, that the realm 
over which those same presidents shall hold the 
scepter may be one of order, love, and justice ; 
instead of confusion, greed and oppression. 

I next visited Harrington and Larene, both 
reached by stage, and then, returning to Wilbur, 
held meetings and organized there and proceeded 
on down the Central Washington R. R. to Al- 
mira, from which place I went twenty-three miles 
by stage to Coulee City. By this time the weather 
had become very hot, the mercury often running 
above a hundred in the shade at midday, and as 
the alkali dust was so dense as to be stifling, it 
will readily be understood that the trip to the lat- 
ter place was not an inspiring one. 

Yet, as we were passing through a narrow 
defile between the rocks to get into the town, a 
man, flushed and dusty, stepped from behind a 
big, black boulder and asked if I was the lady 
who was going to lecture. I told him such was 
my intention, upon which he said: ''AH right! 



IJ^ THE NEW N"ORTHWEST. 33 

We've always been disappointed before by lectur- 
ers not coming as they agreed, so we have not 
done anything but give out the notice. But the 
boys will work lively v^hen they know you are 
here." 

He then told the driver to take me to a cer- 
tain hotel, and, as we passed on, I wondered who 
''the boys" could possibly be, and why they should 
work more lively for my coming. But I had 
not long to wait for the answer. Before I had 
fully shaken off the dust of the ride, the same 
man appeared at the hotel bringing another with 
him, whom he introduced as the editor 'of the 
''Coulee City News.*' Then the fact came out 
that there had never yet been a public meeting 
in the town except a Sunday School, which had 
been held in the dining-room of the hotel I was 
then in. 

"But," said the editor, who had, evidently, 
been made chairman of the "committee on ar- 
rangements," "now you are here, and we know 
there will be no disappointment, we'll get the 
boys together this afternoon, and clean out a new 
store building that has just been put up, and by 
night we'll have it in trim for a meeting." He 
then told me that but two nights previous a 
shooting affray in which the inmates of a saloon 
and house of ill fame had participated had oc- 
curred in the street, to the terror of respectable 



34 

citizens, and consequently they were glad to wel- 
come those whose efforts were directed against 
such outrages. 

Mrs. E. A. Foreman, wife of the proprietor of 
the hotel, in speaking of the difficulties in the 
way of keeping a respectable, temperance house, 
remarked incidentally, "Mr. Foreman and I have 
often retired fearing our house would be burned 
over us before morning," which will give some 
idea of the state of lawlessness existing. 

The editor was successful in getting his 
"boys" together, and when night came I was es- 
corted to a new building, in which rough boards 
had been placed for seats and a crowd of dusty 
men and women was fast gathering. To my 
surprise, two women, with garments heavily la- 
den with dust, stepped up and displayed the white 
ribbon, telling me they had driven many miles 
for the sake of attending the meeting. After the 
usual opening exercises, the editor made a little 
introductory speech, in which he paid a high 
compliment to the W. C. T. U., and told the audi- 
ence to bear in mind and carry into the history 
of the town the fact that a woman had braved 
the hardships of the trip and made the first pub- 
lic speech in Coulee City. The place was oppres- 
sively warm, and as I looked over the heads of 
the audience into the lingering twilight outside, 
great clouds of the flour-like dust met my gaze as 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 35 

they swept past; but, as I thought of the enthus- 
iasm and frankly expressed kindness of those 
who had such discomforts to endure continually, 
my own small ills fell into insignificance, and 
were lost sight of in the effort to prove helpful to 
the brave hearts who were making such a stand 
against evil while battling with physical ills 
quite inconceivable to those who have never ex- 
perienced them. 

Returning to Davenport, where an appoint- 
ment awaited me, I found that another had been 
made at a school house some eight miles distant, 
to which Mrs. Pryor was to convey me by car- 
riage. One of the greatest sources of irritation 
an Eastern person, in the habit of counting min- 
utes, meets with in some parts of the West is the 
general inclination to be late everywhere and 
under all circumstances ; and having had some 
experience in that direction, I began to grow un- 
easy as the afternoon before the evening of the 
latter appointment wore on toward twilight with- 
out Mrs. Pryor making her appearance. Finally 
she arrived, but the first mile on the road gave 
so little promise of our reaching our destination 
at the proper time that I drew my watch in ap- 
prehension. 

Seeing the action, Mrs. Pryor asked in some 
surprise, "What time is it?" 

Being told, she remarked that she had not 



36 A WO]HA]S"'S JOURl^EYIIs^GS 

driven more rapidly for fear the roughness of the 
road would weary me. 

"Nevermind me; drive on!" I answered, in 
desperation, as thoughts of a deserted school 
house and disgusted country people flashed 
through my mind. 

Then Mrs. Pryor verified the estimate I had 
formed of her character, and I was treated to a 
display of Western horsewomanship such as is sel- 
dom witnessed. Realizing that the time was 
short, she coolly remarked, ''We'll get there,'* 
and with eyes and hands alert to guide the car- 
riage clear of rocks, proceeded to let out her span 
of bays at a rate that soon rivaled the speed in- 
dulged in by the most reckless of Jehus whose 
driving I had tested, and brought forcibly to 
mind the story of Horace Greeley's ride to Pla- 
cerville in the hands of Hank Monk. I made no 
note of the time in which we covered the dis- 
tance, but it is needless to say that we ''got 
there." 

At the close of the meeting, we were invited 
to spend the night at a stock ranch near, owned 
a,nd conducted by women, On arriving and be- 
ing introduced to the ladies — a Mrs. Green and 
her three daughters — I at once began making in- 
quiries as to the manner of conducting, and the 
success attending such an enterprise when en- 
tirely in the hands of the weaker sex. In answer. 



IN^ THE is^EW ;n"Orthwest. 37 

one of the young ladies displayed a neatly kept 
set of stock books, showing the age, lineage and 
name of every animal on the ranch, and told me 
that the keeping of the books was her especial 
duty. 

'•How did you succeed in bringing your stock 
through the winter?" I asked, remembering the 
many carcasses of cattle I had seen strewn over 
the country, and having been told that many 
thousands had perished. 

''We have never lost a head from hunger or 
cold," she answered, and then added, with deci- 
sion: "There is no need of stock starving or 
freezing in this country. The cause of such 
things is always bad management." 

''Upon further conversation, I learned that 
but one man was employed on the ranch except 
during the see ding and harvesting seasons, and 
that the women, who were refined and educated, 
managed every detail of the business. 



38 A WOMAI^'S J0UR2!TEYIKGS 




^ 



CHAPTER lY. 

^n returning to Davenport, I found letters call- 
ing me to Spokane and Whitman counties, 
which necessitated a change of headquarters. So 
I said good-bye to the Big Bend country and start- 
ed for Cheney, stopping at several points on the 
way, but leaving Medical Lake, a place of some 
importance, for a future date. Establishing my 
headquarters at Cheney, I first visited Spokane 
Falls in company with the State president, and 
there met Mrs. Esther A. Jobes, superintendent 
of the Department of Literature of the East Wash- 
ington W. C. T. U., and one of the brightest wo- 
men I met in the West. Mrs. Olive H. Bowen, 
superintendent of the Department of Work 
Among Miners, drove us over to Ross Park, the 
pride of Spokane Falls, and its one aristocratic 
suburb. I did not discover the ^'park/' but when 
I thought of the amount of labor necessary to pro- 
duce even the small number of beautiful green 
lawns to be seen, from a natural surface so rocky 
and brown as that surrounding them, I felt that 
the Spokanites were justified in thtjir estimate of 
the merits of the spot. A large building for an in- 



li^ THE NEW NORTHWEST. 39 

terstate exposition which was to be held the fol- 
lowing October was being erected at the Falls, 
and after securing space in it for a represeriftation 
of the W. C. T. U., we returned to Cheney. 

I visited Spokane several times afterwards 
and had opportunities of judging of its progress 
and prosperity. To judge of the former, after 
learning the age of the city, all that was neces- 
sary Avas to watch the crowding throngs in its 
streets and glance at its beautiful buildings. 
Nearly all of the business structures are of brick 
or stone, and beautiful decorations of different 
varieties of chalcedony and other handsome 
stones shine out on the fronts of some and on 
many private dwellings. As to the latter^ the ul- 
timate prosperity of the place is assured by its 
surroundings. The great mineral wealth of the 
hills combined with the remarkable productive- 
ness of the arable land cannot fail to prove a 
source of revenue sufficient to support a large city. 
The location of the town itself suggests the idea 
that none but giants, physical and mental, could 
ever have wrought a town out of such material. 
But Spokane has its giants, of both kinds, and it 
possesses an amount of stubborn will not easily 
overcome, as was shown while I was in the vicin- 
ity. When the Exposition Building was nearing 
completion and the time for opening was drawing 
near, the workmen, through some fault of the 
contract, concluded to indulge in a strike. But 



40 A woman's joueneyixgs 

the '•' great show" was not to be delayed by any 
such disloyal conduct. The professional and bus- 
iness men of the town marched to the grounds in 
squads and, with an utter disregard of the fate 
of silk hats and fine clothes, took up hatchet and 
saw and proceeded with the work. 

Starting from Spokane Falls on the Union 
Pacific R. R., my first stopping point was Rock- 
ford, after which followed Fairfield, Latah, Te- 
koa, Farmington, Garfield, Colfax, Oakesdale, Ro- 
salia, Pine City, St. Johns, Palouse City, Pull- 
man and Colton. The largest of these towns is 
Colfax, at which place I stopped four days. Colfax 
is in Whitman county, which is called the banner 
wheat county of Washington. The town is in- 
closed by almost perpendicular walls of rock, 
which literally stand in the way of expansion, and 
unless some style of architecture of the barnacle or- 
der shall be invented, the future seems to prom- 
ise Colfax nothing in the way of growth. One of 
the chief branches of trade carried on is that of 
furnishing harvesting machinery, but there are 
good dry-goods, drug and other stores, and the 
people are not lacking in enterprise and intelli- 
gence. I there met Mrs. Dr. Boswell, Mrs. L. M. 
Carley and others well known in moral public cir- 
cles, and at Palouse City I had the pleasure of 
meeting Mrs. Judge Buck, formerly Territorial 
president of Idaho, and Mrs. Mary E. Beach, who 
divides her time between that place and Colfax 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 41 

in looking after the management of her estates 
in both Dlaces. At Pulhnan, 1 met Rev. Elvira 
Cobleigh, who was at the time pastor of the Con- 
gregational church, and whose debtor I was made 
by her thoughtful assistance. Owing to some 
misunderstanding, no one met me at the station 
at Pullman, and, there being no carriages, I was 
obliged to walk a long distance through the dust 
an,d climb a sky-reaching bluff at the last. As a 
consequence I was both physically and mentally 
irritated when Mrs. Cobleigh reached me ; but my 
disquiet was soon assuaged by her helpful words 
and presence. 

Aside from the large wheat fields, which 
stretch up the hillsides to a height that would 
prove disastrous where rain-falls are frequent, 
there is little of interest in the "Palouse coun- 
try," as the great wheat section is called. Some 
of the towns are given attractive, but truth com- 
pels me to say, misleading, names. For instance, 
Oakesdale has no oaks — in fact, no native trees 
of any kind; Rosalia is barren of roses, and, while 
there are pines at Pine City, there does not hap- 
pen to be any city. I reached the latter place by 
stage, which was an open buggy drawn by two 
ponies, one of which persisted in leading the oth- 
er by half a length, and both of which persisted 
in running down hill at a perilous rate. They 
seemed to be quite beyond the control of the 
driver, who was much past seventy years of age, 



42 A woman's journeyings 

but he explained, by way of apology for the ap- 
parent recklessness, that it was only in going 
down hill that any speed could be made. I knew 
such to be the fact, inasmuch as the moment we 
finished the descent of one hill we began the as- 
cent of another; and so I followed the example of 
my aged companion, who sat erect and gazed up- 
ward, evidently not wishing to contemplate the 
danger of being thrown from the dizzy heights 
by the breaking of a belt or buckle. The forti- 
tude necessary to endure the short mail-route 
trips is as nothing, however, to that called for on 
the regular passenger and freight stage lines. 
On some of the regular lines on which I trav- 
eled, the vehicles, which were strong, three- 
seated open wagons, were first examined to make 
sure that nothing should break under any proba- 
ble strain; bags, boxes and packages were then 
placed under the seats; numerous mail pouches 
were stacked in the rear and securely lashed on, 
and then the passengers crowded themselves into 
the remaining space. The progress up hill was 
necessarily slow, but, upon reaching the top, the 
brakes would be put on, and the team, usually of 
four horses, would be lashed into a gait that ren- 
dered clinging to the seat rail a necessity, and 
often left one's body ornamented with contusions ; 
the latter being the result of being thrown against 
the sides of the box or seat by the wheels strik- 
ing rocks or dropping into ''chuck holes;" which 



IN THE NE\T ifORTHWEST. 43 

last are holes abruptly indented in soft spots of 
the dry earth by the wheels of the still heavier 
freight wagons. 

About the middle of September, I returned to 
Cheney, soon afterwards visiting Medical Lake, 
which was fast becoming popular as a summer 
resort. I there enjoyed the hospitality of Mrs. 
Jennie L, Greea, through whose courtesy I was 
rowed across the lake, where I visited the East- 
ern Washington Asylum for the Insane, which 
stands in a grove of pines on an eminence slop- 
ing down to the water's edge. The lake is simi- 
lar to those about Cheney, except that it has the 
appearance of being of more recent creation, no 
sign of vegetable growth being as yet visible in- 
side its rocky rim. The water is so thoroughly 
impregnated with potash that no fish can live in 
it, but Nature, from the unlimited resources of 
an illimitable wisdom, has peopled it with myri- 
ads of small, red insects, which, dying, drop upon 
the bare rock ledges of its sloping sides in a sort 
of pulp, thus forming a base for vegetable growth. 
In earlier times both Indians and whites utilized 
the water in the practical art of soap-making, 
but it was found to possess great curative power 
over some diseases, and is now used for medic- 
inal purposes alone. I J^^fcSi.: I 

Returning still again to Cheney, I made prep- 
aration for my trip over the Cascade Mountains 



44 A woman's joubneyings 

to what is called Western Washington, my first j 
objective point after crossing the Cascades being 
Port Townsend, on Puget Sound. My first stop- 
ping place after leaving Cheney was Sprague, 
the county seat of Lincoln county, and, like Che- 
ney, one of the older towns in Eastern Washing- 
ton. Being a division station of the Northern 
Pacific R. K, it is what may be called a railroad i 
town, and its inhabitants are largely railroad em- | 
ployes. I there found traces of the efforts of Mrs. ^ 
Mary Clement Leavitt, the far-seeing, patient 
and able W; C. T. U. path-beater, who was, at 
the time of my visit to Sprague, bearing her torch 
through highways and byways far beyond the 
Pacific, on her way around the world. The 
Union at Sprague was only a memory, but, resur- 
recting it and placing two pastors' wives ''at the 
fore", I proceeded to Ritzville, in Adams county. 
Ritzville is at the eastern edge of the sage brush 
plains of Eastern Washington, and its principal 
natural features are black boulders, bunch grass 
and sage intermingled, and a sandy but product- 
ive soil. Wondering why a town should be built 
in such a spot, and knowing that minerals were 
found at some depth in many places in the sec- 
tion, I asked if gold or silver had been discovered 
near. 

''No," said my hostess, Mrs. A. C. Singer, wife 
of the Congregational pastor, "we have not found 
either yet, but one of our townsmen has just dis- 



IN THE NEW NOKTHWEST. 45 

covered what he hopes will prove a gold mine, in 
the form of a vein of polishing powder." 

She then showed me some of the powder, 
which had been discovered at a depth of a few 
feet on digging a well, and which appeared to me 
to be sand ground to a state of impalpability,prob- 
ably by some mill of nature long gone out of 
use. But its merits as a polishing powder were 
apparent on applying it to gold, silver or tin sur- 
faces, and arrangements were being made for 
placing it on the market. 

North Yakima, a hundred and seventy miles 
farther on the way, came next on the list, and af- 
ter traveling over dry sage brush plains until I 
was weary of the view, I was agreeably surprised 
on arriving to find myself in a beautiful little 
town, full of trees and other vegetation (produced 
by irrigation), and with streets thronged with in- 
telligent and progressive people. While there I 
learned that efforts had been and were still being 
made to bring the state capital to that place; and, 
considering its geographical location, which is 
near the center of the state, and also the fact that 
it is easy of access by rail, it has much in its favor 
above Olympia, the present capital. 

My next stop was to have been at Ellensburg, 
but when on my way to that place, our train drew 
up in a wild, rocky glen at about four o'clock in 
the afternoon, and the passengers were told to 



46 A woman's JOUKNEYINGS 

prepare for a delay of five hours. Learning that 
a freight train was derailed a short distance 
ahead of ours, and that there was small hope of 
the track being cleared even in the time specified, 
I concluded to go through to Tacoma, where I 
was to take the steamer for Port Town send. Ab 
the change of plan necessitated a re- checking of 
my baggage, I looked about for some one of the 
trainmen of whom to ask the favor of taking my 
checks to the baggage car, but found all had 
availed themselves of the opportunity for relief 
from the routine of daily duties, and were explor- 
ing the surroundings with the passengers. In- 
deed, the delay seemed to be so highly enjoyed 
by the weary '^overlanders" that it was a pleasure 
to watch their movements as they promenaded 
in squads or climbed among the rocks in search 
of '^specimens". Finally, after trudging the dis- 
tance to the baggage cars of the long train in 
sand several inches deep, I succeeded in re- 
checking my baggage, and then, as darkness was 
coming on, sought rest for the night. 



IN" THE NEW NORTHWEST. 47 




CHAPTER V. 

hile in Eastern Washington, I had heard 
^^,. so many conflicting opinions expressed 
of the country west of the Cascades that my 
mind was in a state of confused imbecility re- 
garding it. 

"If you like a country where it rains all the 
time, you'll like it west of the mountains," said 
some. 

"It is just as dry over there as it is here," 
others would say. 

"Why, I wouldn't live over there, where you 
have to wade in mud and grub ferns all the time, 
if they'd give me the country," said a ranchman 
whom I met at Cheney. 

But while I was trying to decide in my mind 
whether the pleasure of seeing fresh ferns would 
or would not counterbalance the mud, a com- 
mercial traveler present, taking advantage of the 
ranchman's inattention for a moment, remarked, 
impressively, "When you get west of the Cas- 
cades you'll be in a white country." 



48 A woman's journetings 

I make these quotations as some excuse to the 
reader for my feeble state of mind as I fell asleep 
while the train was lying under a low bluff of 
dry, red rock in the glen west of North Yakima, 
and not as an insinuation that Western people lack 
veracity. Tastes differ, and the vision is often 
biased by other senses; and with something of 
that thought in my mind, I caught my first 
glimpse of Washington west of the Cascade Moun- 
tains. But I was not prepared for the sensation 
that first sight produced. No one who has not for 
five consecutive months of the warmer season 
traveled over a country never fully supplied with 
water, can possibly understand the gratitude, 
relief and sense of rising energy I felt as I looked 
out at break of day and saw that we were pass- 
ing through dense undergrowth interspersed with 
monster yews, and ferns higher than one's head, 
all dripping with pearly moisture. I at once de- 
cided in favor of the ferns as against the mud, 
but after observation convinced me that ferns of 
such dimensions were much more restful to the 
eyes of sightseers than to the spinal column of 
those engaged in their extermination. Yet, as 
the balmy air from the moist foliage began to re- 
lax the tense nervous strain incident to the at- 
mosphere and altitude out of which I had come, 
a firm and lasting conviction settled upon my 
mind that, though the ferns shot up in a night, as 
the people claim they do, and grew as high as the 



IN THE T^EW NORTHWEST. 49 

yews above them, I would still prefer that state 
of affairs to the other extreme— on the principle 
that a continual surfeit is safer than a protracted 
fast. 

We arrived at Tacoma at about eight o'clock 
in the morning, being just in time for the Port 
Townsend boat. As we drew out of the harbor 
into the open water, I began to realize the extent 
of that wonderful inland salt water sea, Puget 
Sound. The day was showery and a light breeze 
was blowing from thQ north, but when I went on 
deck I found that both showers and breeze would 
in Ohio belong more properly to the after part of 
April than the middle of October. The steamer 
was crowded with passengers, several of wkom 
were on the last stretch of the long overland trip 
from points east of Chicago, and who, unmindful 
of the rain that beat against them, stood and 
gazed in speechless wonder at the scene that had 
opened before them. After the first glimpse, I 
returned to the cabin and, drawing on a heavy 
coat, armed myself with an umbrella and again 
sought the deck, determined to lose nothing of 
the wonderful panorama, made up of blue water 
beneath ; flocks of beautiful gulls sweeping down 
almost within reach, from above ; islands and 
mainland embossed with the verdure of the ma- 
drono tree and fringed and tasseled with the del- 
icate foliage of the cedar and fir ; and shifting 
mist effects of which the eye would never tire. 



50 A WOMAN'S JOURNEYINGS 

" What do you think of it, Jennie ?" asked a 
young husband of the cultured but delicate wife 
he had brought from her Pennsylvania home to 
share another with him on the shore of Belling- 
ham Bay. 

" Is it all like this ? " was the cautious prelude 
to Jennie's answer. 

" Oh, yes," the husband replied, but, with the 
true Western spirit of rivalry, added, ^^only, I 
think it is better where our place is." 

Turning her eyes from the scene before her 
to her husband, the young wife answered, with 
deliberation, '' Then I think I shall remain." 

Discovering that the little side scene had not 
escaped my observation, the couple explained, be- 
tween them, that the husband had left coilege 
three years before to seek a place where he could 
make a home for his then affianced and himself ; 
had wrestled with Fortune two years alone, but 
in the third had so far gained the mastery that he 
had gone back for his promised wife, who then 
stood beside him, but whose parents had parted 
with their daughter with some misgivings regard- 
ing the safety and comfort of a country full of In- 
dians and unplastered houses. 

As we neared Port Townsend, the clouds 
broke away and let in the sunlight, and the most 
beautiful rainbow I remember having seen reared 



I2vr THE NEW NORTHWEST. 51 

its variegated arch to view over our starboard 
quarter as we steamed into the harbor, past ves- 
sels from Japan and other points on the shores of 
the wide Pacific. 

Having while in Eastern Washington held 
some correspondence with Mrs. Emma Barrett, 
who is, probably, the most successful evangelist^ 
male or female, west of the Rocky Mountains, and 
who established the Seaman's Home at Port 
Townsend, I inquired for her on my arrival, and 
was directed to her residence. Having known 
her in former years, when as Emma Molloy she 
held vast audiences spell-bound as she spoke in 
the cause of temperance ; and having from a dis- 
tance offered my single mite of comfort when, 
later, she was reviled and hounded by servile 
agents of the liquor traffic and forsaken by time- 
serving comrades, I was pleased upon hearing, 
even before reaching her abode, that she was to 
preach in the Methodist Church both morning and 
evening of the following day, which was Sunday. 
Later I was introduced to her husband, Mr. Mor- 
ris Barrett, for many years in the Government 
printing office at Washington, D. C, and still 
owning a home there, although now on the Port 
Townsend Leader, and found him in full sympa- 
thy with his wife's works and views. Their house 
is always open to those in want, whether physical 
or mental and as I again and again returned to 
Port Townsend and noted the variety of wants 



52 A woman's journeyings 

filled and the number of hearts comforted, it oc- 
curred to me that a not inappropriate inscription 
to be placed over the doorway of that home would 
be the lines from Elizabeth Whittier's beautiful 
poem Charity, 

" Whoever thou art whose need is great, 
In the name of Christ, the compassionate, 
And merciful one, for thee I wait. " 

After remaining a week in Port Townsend, I 
started out to fill appointments in the towns of 
•the Sound, my first point being New Dungenness, 
on the Straits of San Juan de Fuca. To reach 
that place I was obliged to take a steamer for 
Port William, simply a wharf built out from the 
rocky shore, where I was to be met with a private 
conveyance and taken ^ve miles across the coun- 
try. Although New Dungenness had been en- 
tered by the lighter draft local steamers since the 
advent of steam on the Sound, rivalry of interests 
had resulted in such a deception, or bias, or what- 
ever it may have been, of the postal officials at 
the national capital, that they had created a post- 
office at Port William, a postal route from there 
to New Dungenness, and had given instructions 
that no mail be delivered by boat at the latter 
place. By such arrangement property near Port 
William was enhanced in value, but the Dungen- 
nessites were compelled to haul their produce five 
miles for shipment and endure many other incon- 
veniences caused by the change. 



IK THE NEW N^ORTHWEST. 53 

Mr. Charles Davis, the proprietor of a large 
dairy farm near New Dungenness harbor, and at 
whose house I was to stop, accompanied me from 
Port Townsend, and a brother, Mr. William Da- 
vis, who owns another dairy farm three miles 
from the first, met us at Port William. As we 
drove along through the deep forest of monster 
firs and cedars, the brothers, seeing my interest 
in the surroundings, told me of the still earlier 
days, when they had come, with their wives, into 
the then unbroken wilderness, and, clearing away 
the gigantic trees, had raised produce, which they 
marketed, at Post Townsend and others of the 
older ports, in small yachts sailed by themselves. 

Many of the trees between which we were 
passing were over two hundred feet high, and a 
number to which my attention was called were 
said to measure from seven to ten feet in diame- 
ter. Yet, some of the enormous cedars reached 
down their delicate, fern-like leaves within grasp, 
and I severed a number of perfect specimens as 
we passed under the boughs. 

At a gateway about a quarter of a mile from 
Mr. Davis' residence, we found Mrs. Davis await- 
ing to welcome me to their **home by the sea," 
which I found to be a modern square-roofed man- 
sion, set in grounds embellished with shrubs bear- 
ing masses of scarlet berries and as perfect in its 
interior appointments as sterling English house- 



54 A WOMAN^'S JOURNBYINGS 

keeping and a model Chinese cook could make it. 
To the left as one faces the water, which is within 
plain sight of the house, lie the long salt marshes, 
up >n which the cows graze the entire year, and 
•without which dairy farming would be an Hercu- 
lean task in that section of country. The Olym- 
pic Mountains, with their crests of snow, are also 
within plain view of Mr. Davis' residence, and 
while gazing at them I utilized the time by pick- 
ing handfuls of delicious blackberries from the 
native "evergreen" bushes at the back of the 
house. And this was in the latter part of October. 

The next morning after my arrival, as we 
were on our way to church, great numbers of 
large black birds circled around and over the car- 
riage, and I asked, quite innocently, " What kind 
of birds are those ? " 

Everybody laughed, and Mr. Davis, answer- 
ing that they were crows, asked, in great aston- 
ishment, " Don't you know a crow ? " 

"Not of that size," I answered, and added 
that crows did not grow to the size of turkeys in 
the East. 

Then the laugh was in my favor, and I ven- 
tured to ask if crows of such dimensions were not 
very destructive to crops. In reply I was told that 
they fed on the small crustaceous animals and 
shellfish brought in or left bare by the tides, and, 
moreover, that they were looked upon with great 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 55 

reverence by the Indians, who believed that when 
one of their race died, his spirit at once took up 
its habitation in a crow. 

After spending one night with the family of 
Mr. William Davis, and becoming acquainted 
with his most estimable wife, I returned to Port 
William preparatory to taking the steamer to 
Port Angeles, still farther out towards the ocean. 
As I sat on the lone wharf waiting for the coming 
of the boat, a fleet of Indian canoes, the sight of 
which, with their untamed occupants, would have 
driven an artist wild with delight, drew in to- 
wards the shore and finally stopped but a few feet 
from me. They were loaded with fish and clams, 
and both Indians and squaws seemed highly 
pleased over their remarkable catch. Soon they 
passed around the wharf, and steering up to the 
bank under a shelving bluff, fastened their boats 
and prepared to camp for the night, it then being 
past four o'clock. 

Finally the steamer arrived, and securing a 
camp stool, I seated myself on the forward deck, 
that I might catch all the remaining daylight. 
Fixing my eyes on the sunset, which was a sight 
to be remembered as a dream of what may be in 
the hereafter, I had almost lost thought of m\ im- 
mediate surroundings, when I became conscious 
that others were gathering around me and all 
eyes were turned in the same direction as my 



56 A woman's journeyings 

own. Looking at my companions, I saw such a 
mixed company as is seldom seen outside of the 
large cities. Close at my side stood a young girl, 
who, having attended one of my Port Townsend 
meetings, had recognized me as I came on board, 
and who gladly imparted to me what knowledge 
she had of our fellow passengers. 

'*You see those two men there, in gray 
clothes, by the rail ? " she said, interrogatively. 

I nodded an affirmative, aod she continued : 
^' They belong to the infidel colony up at Angeles." 

Having previously heard that a community 
which held up as one of its tenets the paradox, 
"No saloons nor churches," existed somewhere in 
the vicinity, I at once understood the pertinence 
of the information, and again looked at the two 
men, who seemed, somehow, to have missed life's 
sunshine, but whose eyes were intently bent on 
the sinking orb before us. With the thought, 
which was a prayer as well, that the sight then 
gazed upon might be but the imperfect type of 
one that would greet their vision when, in life's 
later days, with eyes cleared of earth's shadows, 
they would look out into former void and be met 
by the resplendent light of God's spirit, I turned 
towards two nuns sitting near and looked an in- 
terrogation at my companion. 

"They are going to Angeles to see about the 
Catholic hospital there," was the answer to my 



IN THE T^EW NORTHWEST. 57 

mute question, and my young friend continued: 
''That man with the silk hat is trying to get an 
office — I forget what — and he's around 'lectioneer- 
ing. That big man with the heavy chain has got 
a brewery at Seattle, or somewhere, and those 
two men ahead of him are from Mexico, I heard 
them say." 

Two young men from Scotland, an Irishman, 
a Russian and a Japanese, were also a part of 
our group, to which several of the boatmen were 
-at last attracted, as we sat and gazed in deepen- 
ing silence on the red waves of light, all admit- 
ting by our rapt admiration the existence of an all- 
powerful and all-loving Being, whose spirit had 
just touched us through our eyes. 

We reached Port Angeles soon after sun- 
down, and as my stopping place was near the 
young lady's home, we started out together, her 
father, who met her at the wharf, accompanying 
us. The darkness seemed to deepen as we pro- 
ceeded, and I could not account for it until my 
companion stopped and remarked that we had 
reached ''the stairs"; when I found that a bluff 
nearly a hundred feet high and almost perpendic- 
ular barred our way. The bluff was to be scaled 
by means of a stairway, the first flight of which 
contained about one hundred steps and was en- 
tirely devoid of hand rails. Moreover, the steps 
were slippery from recent rain, and a fall meant 



58 A woman's journeyiitgs 

maiming and perhaps death on the rocks below. 
Yet, one soon learns the insufficiency of self-reli- 
ance under such circumstances, and I made the 
first step with much the same feeling of resigna- 
tion that I had once grasped the lower rungs of a 
rope ladder, thrown over a ship's side, with a rest- 
less yawl under my feet and pitch-like darkness, 
aggravated by a driving snow-storm, about me. 
We reached the first landing, caught our breath 
and toiled on until we finally gained the summit, 
where we stood and strained our eyes to get a 
glimpse of the electric lights at Victoria, B. C, 
just across the Straits. The night-fog was too 
dense to be penetrated, but I was assured that in 
clearer weather the lights at Victoria were plain- 
ly visible from Port Angeles Heights. 

After spending two very pleasant days at 
Port Angeles, I returned to Port Townsend, and 
while on my way I met and conversed with one 
of the "infidel colony" leaders, the substance of 
which conversation I give, to illustrate the fertil- 
ity of the section as a field for evangelistic ef- 
fort. Embarking at five o'clock in the morning, 
before the chilling fog had been dispersed, all the 
passengers were obliged to seek the small cabin, 
and while there a discussion as to the merits of 
Christianity arose between two men, one of whom 
gave expression to his doubts in such an outspok- 
en manner as to arrest the attention of every- 
body. Placing him at once by his remarks, I de- 






IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 59 

termined to seek some information of the peculiar 
enterprise he was engaged in, and so, as soon as 
the fog lifted, and we went upon deck, I beckoned 
him to a stool beside me, and asked of the success 
of the colony. Without hesitation he frankly ad- 
mitted that it was a signal failure. 

"To what do you attribute your failure?" I 
asked. 

''Well, to tell the truth," he answered, "the 
very selfishness, and greed ^and pride, even, that 
we went there to escape, cropped out among our- 
selves." 

Seeing the smile I could not repress, he said, 
dejectedly, "I suppose it does look funny to oth- 
ers, but it has been no joke to some of us." 

I at once assured him that I had no intention 
to laugh at his misfortunes, but could not help 
smiling at his simplicity in thinking to escape the 
trio he had mentioned, upon which he broke out 
with, ''What kind of a God is it that allows such 
things?" 

Seeing that he was becoming excited, and 
wishing to give him time for the outburst of im- 
patience to pass, I looked at the familiar gulls, 
which were flying so low as to almost touch our 
heads, and remarked that I would like to have 
one. 

Thinking I wanted a bird killed, for the taxi- 
dermist, he said by way of answer, "You would 
never want but one. My wife thought she'd like 



60 A woman's journeyixgs 

one, and I shot one for her; but I didn't get over 
it for a week. It had the most pitiful look in its 
eyes you ever savv^." 

And that was the man who had just blas- 
phemed his Maker, and was one of the leaders of 
the "infidel colony"! That glimpse of his true 
nature led to further inquiry, and I learned that 
he had been robbed of his birthright to parental 
care, by a drunken father and an overworked 
mother, at the outset, and later had floated out 
into the unfeeling world and far more cruel sea of 
doubt past the numerous church-doors of a 
great city, and no hand that he dared grasp had 
been reached out, and no voice he could under- 
stand had called to him as he drifted by. 

Telling him wherein I thought the source of 
his whole trouble lay, I spoke of some simple 
methods by which he might bring his will into 
harmony with that of the Supreme Power, and 
was agreeably surprised by his quick look of com- 
prehension and the remark, "Something like 
that has come to me once or twice when I've been 
thinking this matter over, and I've talked with 
my wife about it." 

Finding him so near the light, but a few words 
more were necessary to get from him the prom- 
ise that he would go home and tell his wife what 
had been said, and together they would give the 
new way a trial, at least. 



Iiq^ THE NEW NORTHWEST. 61 



CHAPTER YI. 

Jjr^opez Island, one of the San Juan group, was 
'^^ the next point to be visited, and I took tlie 
noon steamer from Port Townsend to Richard- 
son, a new landing near the farm of Mr. James 
Davis, a brother to the dairy farmers of New Dun- 
gennes. I found Mr. Davis waiting to conduct 
me to the house, and as we walked along through 
a field where the clover formed a thick green mat, 
I remarked on the productiveness of the soil, and 
was told that it was impossible to over crop it. 
And I found such to be the case on all the islands 
wherever the surface was sufficiently concave to 
have retained the deposits of vegetable and ani- 
mal matter left by the subsidence of the water, 
which once, without doubt, covered the entire 
country. 

Mrs. Davis, whom I found to be an intelli- 
gent, well informed woman, and who was one of 
the W. Washington W. C. T. U. vice-presidents, 
gave me some interesting reminiscences, among 
which was the fact that she was the first white 
woman to live on the island. The annual meet- 



62 

ing of the Lopez W. C. T. U. was held the next 
day after my arrival, which was on Friday, and 
from it I was to return with Mrs. Johnson, wife 
of Hon. G. M. Johnson, to her home at Lopez 
Harbor, on the opposite side of the island. As an 
election of school officers was to occur on the 
same day, the W. C. T. U. meeting was appointed 
for four o'clock in the afternoon, for the purpose j 
of giving the members an opportunity to vote at ] 
the school election : the Washington women hav- f 
ing, as before incidentally mentioned, been grant- > 
ed that small privilege by the State constitution, ; 
after having enjoyed full suffrage in Washington - 
as a territory for years. As four o'clock drew 
near, a number of women assembled, but Mrs. 
Johnson was not among them. ] 

''Oh, you need not look for Mrs. Johnson ■ 
yet," said one of the ladies. "Her ponies have i 
been on the go all day taking voters to the polls, | 
and she will be late." j 

It then come out that the temperance people ] 
were strongly opposed to one of the candidates, 
and Mrs. Johnson was rallying forces for his de- 
feat. For the first time realizing that I was in a 
country where the women were " free born" and 
were still recognized as being " half white," I felt 
that I could wait for Mrs. Johnson's coming till 
the small hours of the morning, if necessary. I- 
did not have so long to wait, but the night's ex-. 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 63 

perience proved sufficiently eventful as it trans- 
pired. 

Just as the sun was dropping behind the tall 
firs, a span of white ponies were drawn up at the 
gate by a slender, alert-looking woman, whom I 
recognized intuitively as Mrs. Johnson, and who 
simply said, "We've won." 

Such an announcement was sufficient recom- 
pense for all the delay, and hastening through 
the business of the meeting, good-nights were 
said, and Mrs. Johnson and I set out for Lopez 
Harbor. Taking into consideration that the trip 
was one of several miles ; that the track ran 
through deep fir woods and wound in and out be- 
tween tree boles so near that the wheels some- 
times struck them in passing ; that several pools 
of water had to be forded ; that we were always 
going down hill when we were not going up ; and 
that the darkness was so dense at several points 
that we could not see the white ponies before us, 
the fact that we reached our destination in safety 
may be looked upon as a feat in which human 
agency performed but a diminutive part. 

We said little, as words seemed out of place ; 
but at one point my companion's " nerve " seemed 
to fail her for a moment, and she turned to me 
with, " We're going into a gorge, but whether we 
are in the road or not, I do not know." 

Recalling my training in horsemanship, I 



64 A woman's JOUKNEYIls^GS 

suggested that she *'give the ponies their heads," 
as they could see better than we. 

She "amended the motion" by saying that 
she would also put on the brakes at such times as 
we should "feel" we were going down hill, and 
added that we would then have done all we could 
do. 

Down we went into a deep gorge partly filled 
with water, through which the ponies waded and 
scrambled up the farther bank without let or hin- 
drance from their driver. Soon afterwards Mrs. 
Johnson's quick ear caught the sound of a com- 
ing team, and as the track was single, with but 
few passing places for vehicles, our only chance 
of safety lay in an immediate halt. Drawing the 
ponies up, my companion called out into the dark- 
ness and found that the approaching wagon con- 
tained two men, which proved to be a fortunate 
circumstance. Investigation showed that we 
were in a place where passing was well-nigh im- 
possible, but the two men together succeeded in 
lifting their wagon from the deep worn track to 
the rocks at its side, and good naturedly calling to 
us, '' You'll make it, all right ! " as encouragement 
for the rest of our journey, allowed us to pass on 
in safety. 

The temperance people of Lopez had succeed- 
ed in entirely banishing intoxicating liquors from 
the island, which at the time of my visit was a 



i 



IN THE NEW NOETHWEST. 65 

sort of haven of refuge to those who were endeav- 
oring to overcome the drink habit. But efforts 
were constantly being made to introduce the traf- 
fic, and constant vigilance was necessary to defeat 
them. Two daylight appointments several miles 
apart had been made for Sunday, that all the 
islanders might have an opportunity to attend the 
meetings, and the result was a full attendance at 
both. At those meetings, I for the first time no- 
ticed Indians in the audience ; there being quite 
a sprinkling of dark faces among the white ones. 
And as I spoke with several of the Indian women 
and found them interested and earnest in moral 
work, I gave Lopez Island the credit of having 
furnished the first sample I had seen of what the 
Indians might become under Caucassian influence 
with " fire water" and its train of evils left out. 

From Lopez I went to Friday Harbor, on San 
Juan Island, where the M. E. pastor who had con- 
ducted the Lopez meetings, and who was stationed 
at the former place, had kindly made an appoint- 
ment. On arriving I was conducted to the resi- 
dence of Mrs. Driggs, whose husband was form- 
erly one of the King county officials but had 
sought the island from failing health, and had in- 
troduced the enterprise of prune raising. While 
passing the time until evening I made some in- 
quiries and learned something of the fruit yield, 
for which the San Juan Islands are becoming 
noted. In speaking of the strawberry crop, my 



66 A woman's JOURNEYll^GS 

hostess incidentally remarked that from a certain 
spot, which looked to be no larger than an ordi- - 
nary kitchen garden, they had shipped a large 
number of tons of berries, the exact figures of 
which I forbear giving in consideration of the- 
credulity necessary to accept them as correct. 

" Tons ! " I exclaimed, and added, '' You meant 
to say bushels, I suppose." 

Laughing heartily, she answered, " No, tons ! 
I had forgotten you were from the East, or I would 
have been looking for you to doubt our crop yield 
here." 

She then told me that in preparing fresh ber- 
ries for the table, she had often found it necessary 
to slice the larger ones, that they might absorb 
the sugar sufficiently to be palatable. Receiving 
the direct force of the tides, each of which bears 
its offering of warmth from the Japan Currents, 
the San Juan group of islands seem particularly 
adapted to fruit growing ; the only detraction be- 
ing that the unusual productiveness of the soil, 
combined with th6 atmospheric influences, per- 
haps, seems to conduce more to fecundity and ex- 
pansion than to delicacy of flavor. 

Starting in the early morning for East Sound, 
on Orcas Island, I found the scenery lovely enough 
to have tempted the most restless of nomads to 
pitch his tent for a permanent residence. The 
captain of the diminutive steamer kindly gave me 



IN THE l^EW NORTHWEST. 67 

a seat in the wheel-house, from whence I could 
catch the full effect of every jutting headland and 
beautiful strip of shore, and as we drew sharply 
around promontories and left one charming scene 
only to be met by another — scenes of mirror-like 
water surface with a breath of morning mist upon 
it, shut in by sloping banks covered with dark 
green firs interspersed with patches of various 
grasses and deciduous shrubs in all varieties of 
autumn coloring, I found myself wishing the short 
miles were leagues, and that no cares lay at the 
end, to break in on the memory of the morning's 
enchantment. 

While at East Sound, where I remained two 
days, I had the much-coveted opportunity of en- 
joying a close view of the lovely madrono tree. 
This tree, which is also called the arbutus and be- 
longs to the laurel family, has foliage similar in 
shade to that of the sassafras, and in addition to 
its beauty in that diretion, clusters of bright red 
berries hang upon its branches till mid- winter and 
the bark of the younger trees is of a deep flesh 
color. With its cheering, spring-like freshness, it 
is the most attractive tree of the northwestern 
forest ; and its branches and berries are often used 
for decorative purposes. 

But its beauty of scenery and the feats of pro- 
duction of its soil do not comprise all the attrac- 
tions and advantages of the Puget Sound coun- 



68 A woman's joubn^eyin^gs 

try. Acres and acres of oyster beds, producing a 
small bivalve something like the cove oyster, lie 
ready for the dredge ; clams of many varieties— 
and sizes— may be had for the digging ; large 
flocks of ducks start up from sheltered coves as 
the steamers pass ; the water is full of fish, in size 
from the sturgeon down to the smelt ; the forests 
are alive with game ; and, last but not least to 
those who love pets and admire beauty and inno- 
cence combined, the rocks are often covered with 
seals, which will whimper and cringe in a most 
helpless manner when danger threatens, and can 
be so far domesticated as to follow a small boat 
around with the readiness of a family spaniel. In 
fact, the question, "How shall I live ?" has been 
so fully answered by Nature that many of the in- 
habitants give so little thought to business as to 
be a source of wonderment to new comers. 

An instance of the heedless inertness some- 
times seen occurred as I was on my return to Port 
Townsend from East Sound, and took on such a 
ludicrous aspect as to remain vividly in my mind. 
There being no female passenger beside mysejf 
except a middle-aged squaw, who was being sent 
to visit her people by her white husband, and from 
whom I could get no audible expression except a 
guttural ''Put Tonsen," and nothing but a stiff 
nod of comprehension as I pointed towards some 
object of interest, I was naturally anxious to reach 
my destination as soon as possible. The steamer 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 69 

was due at Port Townsend at eight o'clock the 
same evening, and as the weather was propitious, 
the passengers were congratulating themselves on 
having so fair prospects of a prompt arrival. The 
captain was a Virginian of the ante-bellum school^ 
who, with true Southern laxity of discipline and 
a seeming immunity from disaster, often allowed 
his vessel to crash into docks and ground on sand 
spits, and as often escaped without any more se- 
rious results than delay. So it was generally un- 
derstood that if we escaped the simple detentions 
often occurring, we would arrive on time, and the 
indications seemed favorable for us to do so. But, 
alas for human expectations when traveling by 
the Puget Sound steamers ! About four o'clock 
we stopped at a little port called Argyle, and as 
we came near to the wharf, we saw that a trial of 
patience was at hand. A large pile of bales of 
hay, numerous crates of fowls and about fifty 
hogs with their feet bound were already on the 
wharf, and a man whose progression was barely 
perceptible was wheeling sacks of potatoes on a 
barrow from a warehouse at the beginning of the- 
long wharf to the steamer for shipment.. Per^ 
plexed anxiety was visible on almost every face 
in a moment. 

*' They'll never get all that freight on,, with 
the load we already have," said one. 

"They won't have a chance to put the pota- 
toes on before morning," said another, as he ob- 



70 A WOMAisT'S JOURisTEYII^GS 

served the snail-like movements of the man at the 
barrc^w ; and impatience was deepening into 
downright anger as the last bale, and crate and 
sack was finally stowed away. 

"Come, boys, slide these fellows on in a 
hurry, now," said the captain, casting a look to- 
ward the fettered animals. 

'^ They've all got to be weighed, yet," deliber- 
ately and unemotionally remarked one of the men 
on the wharf, as he thrust his hand into his pocket 
and drew out a large piece of tobacco, from which 
he proceeded to renew his quid. 

The expressions that followed need not be re- 
corded. It is sufficient to say that the crew set to 
work in high heat and disgust, a part being given 
the task of dragging the luckless porkers on the 
scales, which stood on the wharf, and the rest, 
that of sliding them down the plank into the hold. 
But a change was to come over the spirit of that 
(waking) dream. So long as the poor piggies 
were undisturbed, they remained discreetly silent ; 
but the moment hands were laid on them, shrieks 
of all dimensions, qualities and cadences rent the 
air. From the profoundest bass to the most ear- 
splitting soprano, it was kept up until, overpowered 
by the uniqueness of the music, and, also, the im- 
pressiveness of the strains, the men forgot their 
ill humor in shouts of laughter, and everybody 
became resigned to the situation. Even the In- 



I^ THE NEW NORTHWEST. 71 

dian woman's gravity broke down under the novel 
strain, and she joined the rest. Recovering from 
a paroxysm of laughter into which I had fallen 
when first overcome by the extravaganza to which 
we were being treated, I naturally turned towards 
my dusky sister, and was astonished to find her 
truly Indian mouth stretched literally from ear to 
ear and tears of delight starting from her shining 
eyes. At last the depths of her immobile nature 
had been reached. It was sundown before we 
finally steamed out into the channel again, but 
nobody grumbled. 

Coupeville, on Whidby Island, is reached 
from Port Townsend, by, first, a small ferryboat, 
which runs as close to the beach as possible, then a 
row boat through the surf, and then a stage across 
the island ; but when I arrived, I found there some 
of the brightest and most enterprising W. C. T. U. 
women of Washington. Making a very small be- 
ginning, they had fought their way up against a 
determined foe to recognition and independence, 
being accepted leaders in all moral work and hav- 
ing headquarters of their own. As I held a meet- 
ing there on Sunday night and was due at La 
Conner on Monday, I was obliged to rise at two 
o'clock in the morning to catch the boat for that 
place. Being escorted to the wharf, and having 
escaped mishap from darkness and slippery gang- 
planks and finally got on board the steamer, I 
thought my trials for the day were over, but again 



72 A WOMAJS'S JOURNEYINGS 

I had not calculated on the uncertainty of Puget 
Sound travel. About nine o'clock the steamer 
stopped in the open water, and I was told that I 
must make the rest of the trip in a row-boat, with 
four other passengers. A light rain was falling, 
and as the distance was estimated at from five to 
fifteen miles, the outlook was not promising. 
But we took our seats in silence, endeavoring to 
make the best of an unpleasant matter, and as 
there was water above and below us and our boat 
proved to be leaky, it may be appropiate to say 
that we went on swimmingly for the first hour or 
more. Then we stopped. 

" What's wrong ? " asked a young artist who 
was sitting beside me. 

''Nothing, only the bottom is a little too near 
the top," answered the mate. 

And such proved to be the case. We had 
grounded several miles from our destination, and 
that, with a swiftly receding tide. The oarsmen 
strained and tugged and finally thrust their oars 
into the yielding mud in an attempt to shove the 
boat off, but all in vain. As if in sympathy with 
the misery of the situation the clouds increased 
their dripping to a heavy down-pour, and the wa- 
ter that did not remain in the garments of those 
unprovided with storm coats ran down and added 
to the four or five inches already in the bottom of 
the boat. The nearest land was about a half mile 



IK THE NEW NORTHWEST. 73 

distant, and towards it all looked with longing 

eyes. 

''If we could get there and build a fire, it 
would be an improvement on this," said the ar- 
tist ; but as the dimensions of the *' if " were pain- 
fully visible, his remark passed unheeded. 

It did not take the mate long to decide that 
the boat could not be moved by ordinary means, 
and nodding a silent command to the oarsmen, he 
began unlacing his shoes, which example the two 
men followed. Divesting themselves of shoes 
and stockings and rolling their pantaloons above 
their knees, they stepped boldly out into the chill- 
ing water. Such a course seemed simply suicidal, 
particularly with regard to the oarsmen, who 
were reeking with perspiration from their long 
row and unusual efforts, but as there was no al- 
ternative to offer, I concluded it was a time when 
silence would be the better part of mercy, and 
said nothing. The men succeeded in shoving the 
boat off, but as our chance of escaping a seven 
hours' wait for high tide lay in our reaching the 
deep channel flowing at the base of the bluff be- 
fore us, we were not yet out of danger of losing 
our lives from exposure or the upsetting of the 
boat on the treacherous rocks around us. Twice 
again we made the attempt to reach the channel, 
and as many times grounded and were shoved off 
by the wading crew ; but a detour of several miles 



74 A WOMAIS^'S JOURNEYIJ^GS 

was at last decided on, and we finally gained the 
safe water — not, however, until both oarsmen had 
failed at their task from chill and exhaustion, and 
the passengers had risen to the emergency, two 
taking the oars and one bailing the water from 
the boat. . 

The remaining distance was soon passed over, 
and we landed among the rocks at the foot of the 
steep bank at La Conner, the tide being at its low- 
est ebb, very thankful that matters were no 
worse. Looking up the discouraging acclivity, < 
which was thickly strewn with rocks slippery J 
with sea slime, I saw a gentleman about midway 
from the top holding a closed umbrella towards ; 
me as an aid to my ascent, and heard him asking, 
with strong Scotch accent, if I had really arrived. 
Assuring him that I certainly had, and was very 
glad to know somebody was there to meet me, I 
climbed up, and learned that the gentleman was 
Rev. John M. Baxter, pastor of the M. E. Church 
at La Conner, but only a short time from South 
America. He took me at once to his home, where 
his helpful wife made me welcome. After calling 
on the president of the Union, who was ill at the ; 
time, and holding a public meeting the same even- 
ing, I found a night's rest quite enjoyable, having 
been forty hours with but two hours' sleep. 

Tuesday morning came in with a cloudless) 
sky, warm sunshine following, and as Rev. Bax 



IN" THE NEW ISrORTHWEST. 75 

ter was to convey me to Bay view, nine miles dis- 
tant, we felt that the day had been fitted to our 
needs. We started about nine o'clock, and, ex- 
cepting that the road for the greater part of the 
distance ran through — literally through a sort of 
blue clay, which was said to be rich in aluminum, 
and into which metal we had occasion to sincerely 
wish it had been transmuted before we set out 
upon it, the ride was a most enjoyable one. Al- 
though it was November, the air was as balmy as 
that of May in the eastern states, and birds of gen- 
erous growth and beautiful colors sang sweetly in 
the wild rose bushes and dry sedge grass ae we 
passed along. The country between La Conner 
and Bayview has been settled many years and, 
unlike most other parts, is very level, having been 
claimed from the waters by being dyked in. Its 
appearance would bring delight to the heart of a 
Hollander, and is a novel sight to those who never 
saw canals taking the place of roads. 

Judging from the name, La Conner, that the 
section had originally been settled by French nav- 
igators, or that a mission conducted by a French 
priest had once existed there, I inquired if either 
was the case and was surprised by the informa- 
tion that the name, or, at least, a part of it, came 
originally from Ireland and not from France. As 
the story ran, one Mr. Connor, whose christened 
title I do not recall, had a wife named Lucy A., 
and together they had worked to make a home ia 



76 A woman's journeyikgs 

the wilds, chosing to battle with the tides rather 
than the giant firs farther inland. As time went 
on, they saw the waters recede and the dry land 
appear in answer to their efforts, and as dykes 
were pushed forward, the acres increased until 
Mr. Connor and his wife Lucy A. became jointi j 
owners of sufficient land to entitle them to recog- 
nition as entities by, at least, a subdivision of 
that great caravan called ' ' the people. " Whether 
this subdivision recognized Mr. and Mrs. Conuor 
as individual entities, and not as one combined 
entity bearing the name of Mr. Connor, with all 
full understanding of what it was doing, or 
whether it had been so long separated from the 
main caravan that it did not know that such 
things were ''unpopular" with the main body, I 
do not know ; but the fact that it did so recognize 
them is beyond question. Mr. Connor coincided 
with the people in the idea that his wife was an 
individual entity, and when, finally, it became 
necessary to formally christen the Connor boat 
landing, the only question that arose was the one 
as to which entity should receive the honor of be- 
ing passed into history on the tongues of the peo- 
ple. After due deliberation, it was decided that, 
as towns were not supposed to need ''front" 
names nor initials, there must be a combination 
of the joint cognomen with the christened name 
of the entity chosen, and just there came in the 
matter of euphony. Had it not been for euphony. 



IN THE ISEW NOKTHWEST. 77 

I fear that the whole matter of the unusual recog- 
nition would have gone for naught and the prece- 
dent thus established would have been lost sight 
of. It would not do to overtax the tongues that 
were to do the passing into history, and so it was 
decided that the combination proving to be the 
more euphonious should be the one for historical 
honors. After that point had been reached, but 
little time was necessary in which to arrive at 
the conclusion that "L. A. Connor" robbed of its 
abbreviating points and '^struck down to lower 
case" in its second letter, would be much more 
euphonious than ''WConnor" or "JConnor," or 
even "Billconnor" or " Johnconnor." The ^'e" 
was, probably, substituted to rob the name of its 
last Emeraldic appearance. 

As the substance of the foregoing story was 
caught piecemeal by a mind somewhat distracted 
by frequent interludes of conversation on such 
subjects as oyster culture, oat crops, saw-mill 
sites and the merits of soft shell over hard shell 
clams, the reader is requested not to accept it as 
absolutely correct in every particular. In fact, it 
is barely possible that were it to be submitted to 
those most interested, some radical changes 
might be suggested. But the fact remains that 
the sunny little spot raised above the tide flats in 
Skagit county, Washington, and called La Con- 
ner, was named thus in honor of Mrs. L. A. Con- 
nor, who still lives in the neighborhood and whose 



78 A woman's jouknetings 

residence I passed, much regretting that my limit 
of time would not permit me to interview its mis- 
tress. 

Bayview is on a bluff overlooking long 
stretches of tide flats, with deep water in the dis- 
tance. Doubtless, the present site of the town 
will be a point of future outlook on a busy scene 
below, where, with water dyked out and present 
clam-beds turned into building lots, the business 
of the place will be done. At the time of my visit 
the Bayviewers were hopefully scanning harbor 
appropriation lists, but, with such energetic, 
moral people in the town as the Elliots, with 
whom I stopped, churches and schools and gen- 
eral civilization will go on whether the Govern- 
ment does its duty or not. 

After Bayview came Avon, on the Skagit 
River. To reach Avon, I was obliged to retrace 
my journey of the day before for two miles and 
wait in the open air more than an hour for the 
cars, which were but just beginning to make trips 
over a new strip of railroad running from Sedro, 
in the Skagit River country, to Anacortes, but a 
few miles from Bayview. Finally the train ar- j 
rived, and after a short ride over an extremely j 
rough track, we stopped beside an uncovered plat- 
form in the midst of a tract of fallen trees which 
covered the ground to a depth of ten feet or more 
in places, and were told that we had arrived at 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 79 

Avon station. The town was a mile or more from 
the station through the rough clearing and un- 
broken forest, and the passengers were taken 
over in one of the ordinary, wide-tired, heavy- 
Western farm wagons, drawn by two powerful 
Clydesdales. Where clearing had been attempt- 
ed, the ponderous stumps had been blown out 
with dynamite, leaving yawning cavities into 
and out of which the team plunged and climbed 
alternately, the wagon often sinking to the hubs in 
the jaelding earth. Avon is directly on the bank 
of the Skagit River, which is crossed by means of 
a rope ferry at that point for Mount Vernon, about 
two miles away on the opposite shore. Soon after 
arriving, the light showers that had been falling 
settled into a steady rain, which continued 
through the night, leaving no opportunity for ob- 
servation further than that the river was too shal- 
low at that point for any but very light draft 
vessels except during high water. 

Going back to the station in the morning, I 
took the train for Anacortes, which is on Fidalgo 
Island and is a harbor for deep water vessels. 
Fidalgo Island is separated from the mainland 
only by shallow water, which barrier to access 
has been overcome by piling, and the railroad 
terminates at one of the three wharfs already 
built at Anacortes at the time of my visit. 

Having at different times during my pere. 
grinations had my attention attracted to various 



80 A WOMAN'S JOURNEYINGS 

misleading inscriptions, such as '^ Board of 
Trade," "The Little Church," "Foreign Ex- 
change " and the like, over saloon doors, I had 
concluded the liquor dealers had exhausted inge- 
nuity in that direction ; but upon going up to the 
hotel where I was to stop, I found that alcoholic 
brains were, as usual, far behind the un vitiated 
article. As I stepped out of the carriage, I saw 
the words, " No Bar Hotel,'' in large letters across 
the front of the building, and as that happy com- 
bination of originality and unequivocalness met 
my gaze, I felt that "our folks" were still at the 
head. Consequently I received a favorable im- 
pression of Anacortes at the outset, which was 
verified during my stay. The proprietor and his 
wife, Mr. and Mrs. Haggard, who had so fearlessly 
hung out their banner, and whom I found to be 
young people, told me that, quite contrary to what 
had been predicted, the enterprise of keeping a ho- 
tel without a liquor-selling annex of any kind had 
proved highly successful ; and judging from the 
overfuUness of the house, there could be no doubt 
that such was the case. As I rode through the 
town with Mrs. Haggard, who kindly insisted on 
my seeing all the sights, I was more and more de- 
lighted with the place, and also more and more 
impressed that, with its long stretch of accessible 
water front ; its dry and sightly locations for 
building, and the fact that the productive country 
through which I had passed since leaving La 



IN THE N^EW NORTHWEST. 81 

Conner lay contiguous, it could hardly fail to 
reach a state of permanent prosperity within a 
very few years. Like La Conner, Anacortes was 
named in honor of a woman, Mrs. Anna Cortes, 
whose name, like that of the island, would indi- 
cate a first settlement from Spain, but whom I did 
not have the opportunity to inquire in regard to. 



82 A woman's joueneyings 



CHAPTER YII. 

the exposure while on my way to La Conner, 
together with the other discomforts incident 
to the filling of five appointments in as many con- 
secutive days under such circumstances, brought 
on extreme hoarseness at Anacortes, and I was 
obliged to return to Port Townsend for a short 
rest. Returning to the work in the Bellingham 
Bay towns a week afterwards, the first point vis- 
ited was Fairhaven, which name, unlike some 
previously mentioned, I found to be entirely ap- 
propriate. As the appointment had been request- 
ed for Sunday evening, I took the steamer on Sat- 
urday, arriving in Fairhaven about two o'clock 
in the afternoon only to find no arrangements as 
yet made, on account of faulty management of 
the mails. Just here it may not be out of place 
to say that over a good part of the far northwest- 
ern country, the postal service seems to be con- 
ducted more with a desire to give paying offices 
and contracts to favorites, without regard to hon- 
esty or responsibility, than to serve the public 
faithfully. The fact that a letter mailed at Port 



IN THB NEW NORTHWEST. 83 

Townsend the Saturday before was not received 
at Fairhaven until the day of my arrival, and 
that, with a mail boat running daily between the 
places, is but one of the minor instances of gross 
neglect of duty that came under my notice. 
There were some arrests made in the Port Town- 
send office soon after I finally left that place, 
but a general and thorough investigation of the 
mail service of the entire Northwest would be the 
only effective remedy. 

Finding a remarkable amount of ignorance 
existing among the hackmen as to the residence 
of any of the W. C. T. U. officials, I took a car- 
riage to the M. E. parsonage and found that the 
hackmen were not alone in either their ignorance 
or apathy regarding temperance work. 

Having had some experiences in such emer- 
gencies, I asked, without further waste of time, 
*'Who is the most influential woman you have 
here ? " feeling quite sure that in her I would find 
a white ribboner. 

'' Mrs. Judge Kellogg is the woman," said the 
driver, without hesitation ; and to Mrs. Judge 
Kellogg's I told him to drive me. 

On reaching Mrs. Kellogg's residence I found 
my conjectures were not only correct, but that 
she was the local president's mother, and would 
assume all responsibility for the time being. 



84 A woman's journeyings 

Then Western energy was brought to bear, and 
the original plan was carried out. On Monday, 
Mrs. Kellogg drove me within view of Happy Val- 
ley, which is a sunny little dale a mile or so from 
Fairhaven, towards which the town is fast ex- 
tending. At no other place on Bellingham Bay 
did I find such magnificent water views as are had 
from the heights at Fairhaven. 

Sehome and Whatcom, which lay so near to- 
gether that steps were being taken for their con- 
solidation, and which are but a few miles from 
Fairhaven, were my next points, and on Monday 
afternoon I took the ferry-boat for the first named 
place. Upon consultation with Mrs. K. G. C. 
Graves, of Sehome, and Rev. T. J. Massey, of 
Whatcom, I found it wouM be necessary for me 
to remain in the two places a week, which afford- 
ed me some opportunity for observation. 

In Sehome I found Mrs. Elizabeth Lyle Sax- 
ton, the well-known suffragist, who had but re- 
cently sought the haunts of civilization after a 
long rest in the forest from public work, and 
heard from her the story of her "taking up a 
claim." Having for some time been suffering 
from the weariness brought by too much publicity 
— the sense of " never being at home " that comes 
to every public speaker, Mrs. Saxton concluded to 
retire, with her youngest son, to a " lodge in the 
vast wilderness " of Puget Sound firs for a length 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 85 

of time that shoud be determined by experience. 
Going out about twelve miles from Sehome, she 
pre-empted a hundred and sixty acres of land, 
had a cabin erected and set up housekeeping in 
true pioneer style, her son bringing supplies from 
the town by such chance opportunities as an oc- 
casional settler's wagon offered, and ''packing'' 
them over the distance that the wagons did not 
reach. Quite in keeping with her ability in pub- 
lic work, she '' held down" her claim till the ne- 
cessary time expired, and soon sold it at a profit 
of about one thousand dollars. For the enlighten- 
ment of those who do not understand the process 
by which land is secured from the Government in 
the western country, I will explain that there is a 
vast difference between " taking up " and '* hold- 
ing down " a claim. The first is very easy, but 
the last is what tries men's — and women's— souls. 
To '*take up " a claim, one has only to go to the 
land office and pay a few dollars for the filing of 
the claim, at the same time stating that it is the 
intention to make the required improvements ; 
but the "holding down" is to brave solitude and 
dangers, from the elements, wild beasts, reptiles, 
etc. ; to do without luxuries and put forth a good 
deal of physical effort, and to lose touch with the 
world generally for a period of from six months 
to five years, according to the particular kind of 
claim chosen. The pre-emption clause of the land 
law, which required but a six months' residence 



86 A woman's journeyings 

on the land before purchase has, however, been 
repealed recently, I believe. 

" How did you enjoy your experience ? " I 
asked Mrs. Saxton. 

^* I would not have missed it for anything! 
I look back on that year with regret that it is past, 
and nothing but the fact that my boy must be ed- 
ucated ever induced me to return to town life," 
was her answer. 

And, indeed, there is an enchantment about 
the peculiar wildness of the extreme northwest- 
ern forests that is almost irresistible to the true 
lover of nature. 

Whatcom, although built largely on piles, 
over tide , flats, so far as regards its business por- 
tion, and lacking the natural harbor of both Se- 
home and Fairhaven, has already absorbed the 
former, and will, doubtless, take in the latter 
within a few years. Being nothing but a wilder- 
ness two years before my visit, it had grown into 
a city of eight thousand inhabitants, and the dy- 
namiting of elephantine stumps and piling of mud 
flats was still going on, while every steamer de- 
posited on its wharves newcomers, with their 
travel-stained boxes, bags and bundles. 

On the Monday morning following my arrival 
at Sehome, I arose at an early hour in order to 
reach the boat for Blaine, away up on the Gulf of 
Georgia, close to the British Columbia line, and 



IN THE N'EW JfORTHWEST. 8T 

was escorted to the wharf just at dawn. But I 
did not go to Blaine that day. After walking the 
entire length of the half mile of wharf, there 
being no carriages at that hour, I was told that 
there might be a boat going to Blaine that day, 
and there might not. I soon learned that the reg- 
ular steamer had been disabled, and the only pos- 
sibility of reaching Blaine by water would be by 
some chance boat that might be going that way. 

''Why can't you go by the train?" finally 
asked one of the wharf men who had been obliged 
to seek shelter in the wharf house from the tor- 
rents of rain that began to fall. 

Knowing that a railroad was being built 
through to New Westminster, in British Columbia, 
I caught eagerly at the suggestion, and asked if 
trains were really running. The man said they 
were, on each alternate day, and that he was cer- 
tain Monday was one of the days on which trains 
ran. 

Happy thought ! I could take a car ride, after 
so much water travel. 

Yet, I did not go to Blaine that day. I in- 
quired for the depot, and was told there was none 
as yet, but that by standing on the wharf where 
the railroad track crossed it, I could signal the 
train and it would stop. 

" When will the train start ?" I asked. 



88 A woman's joukneyings 

'"Bout one or two o'clock they gen'ly come 
along," the man answered. 

The delightful uncertainty as to which of the 
hours mentioned would prove to be the right one 
was lost sight of in the thought that I must leave 
the wharf and avoid further exposure till the first, 
at least, of the hours should arrive ; and as a car- 
riage soon came out with passengers for the Seat- 
tle steamer, I secured a seat and returned to the 
town. 

Going again to the wharf soon after noon, I 
inquired if anything definite was known of the 
time of the train's arrival, and finally a man was 
brought to me who said there would be no train 
that day. 

'' What is the trouble ?" I asked. ; 

'* That blamed devil's bread pan is r'arin' up 
again," was the answer. 

I do not recall just what my first expression 
was after that remarkable piece of information, 
but am inclined to the idea that it was a some- 
what severe, ''Sir?" It took the form of an in- 
terrogation, I am certain, and the man at once 
proceeded to explain that in building the road, 
the men had found a spot of some dimensions 
where the earth had so settled under the track as 
to require a great amount of filling, and then, 
from some unknown cause at an unknown depth. 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 89 

had risen up again ; and that that tidal process 
had been going on till so suggestive of diabolical 
aid that the spot had been christened, '* The Dev- 
il's Bread Pan." 

Then I did not want to go to Blaine, by rail, 
neither on that nor any other day — at least, until 
the spirit that presided over the *' bread pan" 
should have been exorcised. 

The next morning, I found two steamers, the 
Sehome and Mountaineer, lying at the dock 
awaiting passengers for Blaine ; the first being a 
good-sized passenger boat that made regular trips 
three times a week, and the last being a diminu- 
tive '* independent." Having had some nerve-try- 
ing experience with the jarring, grating motion 
of the larger vessel, I took passage on the smafller, 
which flitted over the water like a bird and kept 
the passengers in a high state, of merriment 
by a whistle that, beginning harmoniously, 
ended in a wail of so many startling varia- 
tions as to suggest the last throes of some dying 
monster. I was afterwards told that the Moun- 
taineer's owner had invented 4;he whistle for pur- 
poses best known to himself, but that its sound 
never failed to overcome the gravity of all who 
heard it, whatever the original object might have 
been. 

The town of Blaine lies upon a more level sur- 
face than either of the three towns I had just vis- 



90 A WOMAlf'S JOURNEYIlfGS 

ited, and consequently is possessed of a less num- 
ber of commanding points of view ; but as it is 
surrounded with snow-clad peaks, there is no lack 
of scenery. Although the middle of December 
was near at hand, the air was comfortably warm, 
and the pleasing aspect of the place was marred 
by nothing but its extremely muddy streets, 
Nearly all of the main streets of the towns in the 
Sound country are made of heavy planks, resting 
on sills sometimes placed on the earth's surface, 
but often on piles at a distance anywhere from 
one to twenty-five feet above. As Blaine's 
''boom" had begun to subside before its streets 
had been planked, the latter were in a most sorry 
condition ; as all the unplanked roads are in that 
country during the rainy season. 

It was my intention to proceed on to New 
Westminster and Vancouver, in British Colum- 
bia, but upon inquiring at what hour the stage 
would start for the former place, I was told that 
it had been discontinued on account of the state 
of the roads. Finding that about six miles of al- 
most bottomless mud would have to be forded to 
reach New Westminster, and an exhorbitant price 
placed on the undertaking, I concluded to return 
to Port Townsend and make preparation for my 
southward journey towards Oregon, leaving Brit- 
ish Columbia towns for a time in the future when 
I should make the outer of the two loop trips to the 



l^ THE TS^EW NORTHWEST. 91 

Pacific, going out by the most southern line of 
railroad and returning by the British Columbia 
route. 

Port Townsend, though maligned, and sneered 
at and ignored by rival towns of later birth, is, 
without doubt, the most charming place for resi- 
dence purposes in the entire Puget Sound country 
on the United States shore. The main business 
portion of the town is still where the first set- 
tlement began, on a narrow bench of land 
just above the reach of the tides, and back 
of which rises a high bluff. The bluff, which 
is now easily mounted by means of an elec- 
tric car line, was formerly climbed by rude 
stairways, two of which were still in use when 
I was last in the place. But even those who 
climb the stairs are fully repaid by the view that 
lies before them on reaching the summit. The 
churches, school buildings and by far the greater 
number of private residences are on the higher 
level, and consequently, a person visiting only 
the water front would have no correct idea of the 
city's extent or beauty. Although all nationali- 
ties are represented in Port Townsend, and China- 
men are almost as plentiful as the crows at Dun- 
genness, I was set down on its wharves and trav- 
ersed its streets alone at midnight again and again 
without molestation or any thought of fear. 

During the entire time from the middle of Oc- 



92 A woma:n^'s joukneyij^^gs 

tober until the first of January there was but one 
week of storm sufficient to interfere with travel, 
and not more than a half dozen all day fogs at 
Port Townsend. There came on a heavy wind- 
storm about the eighteenth of December, lasting 
ing five days, during which time I could not leave 
the city, either by water or land, but the experi- 
ence it brought was well worth the delay. Wish- 
ing to go to Roche Harbor, on San Juan Island, I 
went twice to the wharf and as many times re- 
turned again, awed by the force of the storm. 
Finally I concluded to take a train on Port Town- 
s end's only railroad and explore the Hood's Canal 
region ; but my explorations in that section were 
never made The Port Townsend Southern R. R. 
is, or was at that time, but a short line of unfin- 
ished railroad running from Port Townsend in the 
direction of Olympia, but terminating in the 
Hood's Canal country, much short of that place. 
Hood's Canal is one of the longer and larger of 
the many canal-like bayous reaching out from the 
different bays and inlets on the coast and usually 
called sloughs, and it strikes off into the forest 
south of Port Townsend. The Port Townsend 
Southern Depot is a couple of miles from the 
central part of the city, on the water front, and is 
reached by the street car line. So, with storm 
coat, hand-bag and umbrella, I took a car for the 
depot, fully determined that if I could not get out 
of the city by water, I would do so by land. But 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 93 

I had not taken into consideration the fact that a 
railroad might be built in the water. As the 
street-car stopped at the terminus near the depot, 
and a good distance from the water, we found the 
spray beating clear up to the track, but, nothing 
daunted, set out to reach the depot platform. 
That proved to be a feat that could only be ac- 
complished by joining hands and submitting to be 
led by such of the gentlemen as were able to make 
their way against the wind. Reaching the shelter 
of the building, we recovered our breath and at 
once got upon the train, which was ready for de- 
parture. The track was built over the water, on 
piles, for a considerable distance, and as there was 
some doubt about its safety, considering the strain 
to which it had been subjected since the storm 
came on, it was thought best to place the engine 
at the rear of the train, on account of its great 
weight, and push the passenger cars out to test 
the track. That arrangement seemed highly sat- 
isfactory to the trainsmen, but was not altogether 
pleasing to the passengers. Yet little was said, 
and soon the train began to move slowly out. To 
the left, the view was one of tumultuous water, 
with a small sloop flying a signal of distress and 
rearing and plunging as if endowed with life, as 
she dragged her anchors and drifted on to certain 
destruction if not succored in time ; while to the 
right was a high bluff, around which the train 
must make its way before reaching a place of 



94 A woman's joueneyings 

safety. After proceeding a short distance, the 
train stopped, and several men were sent forward 
to repair the track where the waves were running 
over it ; and for just an hour and forty -five min- 
utes by my watch, we waited there, with the 
spray beating over the tops of the cars, and the 
gallant wrecking crew clinging to the rails ahead 
of us, as they pried and wedged, in a vain attempt 
to repair the damage wrought by the beating of 
heavy drift logs against the track. But the limit 
of endurance was finally reached, and as the 
chilled and dripping men climbed back upon the 
cars, the general feeling was that any further ef- 
fort would be but a tempting of Providence. So 
the train drew back to the station and all returned 
to the city. ' 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 95 



CHAPTER VIII. 

[wo days after my vain attempt to explore the 
Hood's Canal region, I made a tempestuous 
voyage to Roche Harbor, but, happily enjoying a 
general exemption from sea-sickness, found it no 
unpleasant experience. All the other passengers 
were soon prostrated, and when, after nightfall, 
we finally arrived, it was a dejected company 
that landed and proceeded to the Hotel de Haro, 
the one public house in the place. Knowing that 
alluring titles were often accompanied with mea- 
gre ideas of the needs of guests, no picture of com- 
fort flitted before my mind as I groped my way in 
the darkness towards the hotel, and, consequent- 
ly, an agreeable surprise awaited me. Being ush- 
ered into a large sitting-room fully furnished in 
modern style, where a broad fire-place was piled 
high with logs, we were all spell-bound for a mo- 
ment by the contrast to the dirty, ill-smelling 
steamer. But my surprise was still greater when 
I went into the dining-room and found a table su- 
perior to those of many so-called first class hotels 
in the large cities. The mystery was explained 



96 A woman's journeyings 

when I learned that the proprietor was Mr. Mc- 
Millen, president of the Roche Harbor Lime Co., 
and through whose courtesy my appointment had 
been made. 

No one unfamiliar with the crudeness of ho- 
tel-keeping in the newer sections of the West can 
form an adequate idea of the genuine thankful- 
ness with which a home-like place, with clean 
beds and good food, is hailed by travelers in that 
country. That the lack of home comforts and 
cheer is one of the greatest sources of intemper- 
ance in the West, there can be no doubt ; and 
those who keep public houses where temperance, 
morality and good housekeeping reign, are doing 
a greater evangelistic work than the clergy can 
possibly do ; for the reason that the first are min- 
istering to a constant and everchanging concourse 
through many senses, while the last can reach 
but a limited number of people once a week 
through but one sense. 

Soon after reaching the hotel. Rev. Dr. Dillon, 
one of the fathers of Methodism on the coast, ar- 
rived, having been a passenger on the East Sound 
steamer, which had been obliged to land its pas- 
sengers at Roche Harbor on account of the storm. 
Having met Dr. Dillon when at Sehame, we were 
not strangers, and as he could not get passage to 
East Sound before Monday— it then being Friday 



llf THE NEW NORTHWEST. 97 

— he made an agreeable addition to our company- 
over Saturday and Sunday. 

There being no boat for Port Townsend before 
Tuesday, I was obliged to remain over Monday, 
and was given the choice of a yacht ride to Henry 
Island, one of the smaller islands a few miles dis- 
tant, or a visit to the extensive lime works in the 
interest of which the small town has grown into 
existence. Choosing the former, I had a most en- 
joyable sail, after which, Mrs. McMillen showed 
me her roses, yet blooming in the garden, al- 
though Christmas was but two days away. 

With a longing look towards the still unex- 
plored islands of the Achipelago de Haro, I 
stepped on board the steamer Evangel, (the same 
on which I had journeyed from East Sound), 
with a feeling similar to that experienced on leav- 
ing a summer resort when the season is over and 
the attractions gone. But there was yet one more 
novel experience awaiting me. The storm had 
settled into perfect calm, and having taken on 
little freight except a few crates of fowls and a 
much-frightened cow, the steamer was gliding 
over the water at an encouraging rate and the pas- 
sengers were in high good humor in the belief that 
the Evangel would redeem herself from her record 
of mishaps and arrive at her dock before the 
street cars had ceased running and the hack men 
had deserted the wharf in despair. Wednesday 



98 A WOMAI^'S JOURNEYINGS 

was to be spent in preparing for Christmas festiv- 
ities, but we were soon reminded of the command 
to ** take no thought for the morrow." At Lopez 
Harbor a short curve had to be made around the 
end of a sand spit to reach the wharf, but, with the 
usual heedlessness, the boat's prow was kept 
straight on to shore, and in a moment's time a 
shock and a quiver told us we were aground. 

" Everybody go aft ! " shouted the mate. 

Everybody went aft with alacrity, but the tide 
was ebbing swiftlj^ and so much time was lost by 
the apathy of the crew that all attempts to release 
the vessel were fruitless. It was then five o'clock, 
and the tide would not turn for two hours. 
Knowing that an eight hours' wait was before 
me, I went ashore in a small boat and joined Mrs. 
Johnson, who, having espied me when the steam- 
er grounded, was awaiting my coming. A good- 
sized vessel left high and dry as the tide receded 
was too novel a sight to be lost, and immediately 
after supper we repaired to the beach. As the 
tide fell low, the discovery was made that the 
steamer's keel had thrown up furrows of clams on 
each side as it plowed into the beach, and imme- 
diately the sailors concluded to add clam chowder 
to their Christmas bill of fare. Sacks and buck- 
ets were hunted up and a hilarious harvesting be- 
gan. As the water receded, the steamer listed 
more and more till at last it stood at an angle that 



IN^ THE NEW NORTHWEST. 99 

suggested its having retired for the night, and 
which rendered the situation of those on board 
rather embarrassing. 

** Why, you can't stand up, and there is no 
place to lie down ; and as for settin', my wife's 
been slanted up agin the table till she can't hardly 
stir," said a San Juan Islander who crept down 
the steep gang plank about eleven o'clock, and 
who had solemly informed me when the mishap 
occurred, that it was the last time he would ever 
travel by water with '^ weemen folks " in charge ; 
seeming entirely unmindful of the fact that he 
lived on an island. 

Catching a couple of hours' rest on a sofa at 
my friend's house, I arose at two o'clock in the 
morning, and going to the wharf, found the 
steamer ready for departure. To save the trouble 
of placing a plank to the upper deck, the mate in- 
sisted on our reaching the cabin by passing through 
the hold, and led the way through a catacomb- 
like passage, where we barely escaped the heels 
of the long suffering cow. Being immediately be- 
hind the mate, who carried a lantern, I caught a 
lightning-like flash of a pair of hoofs, and utter 
darkness followed. The cow, evidently having 
concluded that the inventors of inclined planes 
for her to stand on would be guilty of any iniq- 
uity, had assumed the defensive and kicked the 
lantern into many pieces. Fearing a repetition 



100 A ttoman's journeyi:n^gs 

of that evidence of displeasure, our procession 
oame to a stand-still, and while the mate was 
hunting for a match, I informed Bossy that I was 
quite in sympathy with her mood, but implored 
her to be less demonstrative. She may not have 
understood my remarks, and she may have ex- 
hausted her ill humor in that one fell blow ; but 
having interceded for her before going ashore and 
had her fastenings lengthened to enable her to 
make the most of her uncomfortable quarters, I 
shall always think it was true gratitude that 
caused her to desist and allow us to proceed in 
safety. 

Leaving Port Townsend for Seattle two days 
before New Year's, I remained in the latter place 
two weeks, during which time more or less rain 
fell every day. Having letters of introduction to 
Mrs. C. K. Jenner, Mr. D. T. Denny and others of 
the earlier residents, I soon learned of the brave 
struggles that had been made to keep spirituality 
abreast with temporal matters in the wild on- 
sweep of the city's progress, and found that the 
cowardly act of robbing the Washington women 
of the ballot had proved the most effective blow 
to morality the town had ever experienced. No 
longer having any faith in men who cravenly 
turned on their own mothers, wives and daugh- 
ters and struck down their liberty and usefulness 
at the behest of the liquor power, many of the 



IN THE NEW NOETHWEST. 101 

more influential and wealthy ladies were stand- 
ing aloof from the interests of the city in disgust, 
and indecision as to what could be done, while 
the tide of ^'all uncleanness" swept up to their 
doors and left its tribute of misery and want. All 
power being thrown back into the hands of men, 
self-interest had found its way into the fold of 
moral workers, and, while the people over the 
state were giving generously to the support of a. 
temperance newspaper and the machinery of a 
state temperance alliance having their headquar- 
ters at Seattle, no results were to be seen except 
a worthless sheet, which died while I was in the 
city, and a few fat salaries. The Y. M. C. A., as- 
sisted by the ladies of the city, held a reception on 
New Year's, which I attended in company with 
Mrs. Harriet Parkhurst, State W. C. T. U. Super- 
intendent of Jail and Prison Work, and which fur- 
nished a pleasant contrast to the sights of fallea 
manhood to be seen on the streets. 

After visiting Ballard, eight miles from Seat- 
tle, I took the steamer for Tacoma, but finding no 
arrangements made for either public or society 
meetings, proceeded on to Steilacoom, where the 
older of the two state lunatic asylums is located, 
and which is one of the oldest towns on the Sound. 
There I found a genuine W. C. T. U. welcome 
awaiting me, owing to the efficiency of the local 
president, Mrs. A. L. Bell, who added to her hos- 



102 A WOMAN^S JOURNEYINGS 

pitality the courtesy of a drive to the Asylum, the 
one place of interest to strangers aside from the 
water view, which is one of great loveliness. The 
Asylum buildings are, as I understood, those of 
an old garrison of the earlier days, and are in no 
way pretentious ; but the natural advantages for 
the restoration of the reason quite overbalanced 
all shortcomings in architecture. Although not 
large, the main building seemed sufficiently ca- 
pacious for the number of inmates, and apparent- 
ly was very well conducted ; but the barracks 
formerly occupied by the soldiers were used as 
dormitories for some of the male inmates, and, in 
the absence of any heating apparatus, must have 
been uncomfortable from dampness during the 
winter season. There was, I noticed, an absence 
of restraints, such as strait- jackets, muffs, strap- 
ping-chairs, etc., that gave evidence of the super- 
intendent's knowledge of the important fact in 
the care of the insane, that the greater the liberty 
given an insane person, within the limit of safety 
to himself and others, the greater are his chances 
of recovery. 

Going from Steilacoom to Olympia, I was at 
last at the extreme southern point of Puget Sound 
and in the state capital. But why Olympia is the 
state capital, is a question no woman can answer, 
and is only one of the many "whys" that are 
constantly on the lips of strangers who visit the 



llHf THE NEW NORTHWEST. 103 

town. ''Why don't they pave the streets?" 
** Why don't they have street cars that are not a 
disgrace to the town ?" "Why are not the resi- 
dents compelled to build sidewalks " are some of 
the questions heard ; and one that often is and of- 
tener might bo asked during the session of the 
legislature is, '• Why do the people trust the inter- 
ests of a great state to the hands of men quite 
unworthy of ordinary respect ? " A disgraceful 
fight occurred between legislators in the principal 
hotel while I was in Olympia, and during my four 
days sojourn I several times witnessed groups of 
the honorable (?) representatives of the people 
congregated at saloon doors in a state of garru- 
lous intoxication. The disreputable element was 
so much in the majority that the only wonder was 
that the reputable members did not go home in 
disgust and escape such enforced companionship. 

Yet, instead of standing shoulder to shoulder 
in harmonious effort against such outside influ- 
ences, the Olympians had weakened their own 
moral force by sectarian discord ; and wrangles 
over the Trinity, which no mortal has yet claimed 
to fully understand, had well-nigh obscured 
Christ and his teachings, whether divine or hu- 
man. The recent revival of religious services by 
the Unitarians after an interval of some years of 
silence had been the signal for a renewal of al- 
most forgotten hostilities, and the too frequent 



104 A woman's journeyings 

spectacle of so-called religious zeal appearing in 
the form of unreasoning persecution was likely 
to be repeated. But, calling on the pastors and 
their wives in the interest of the W. C. T. U., the 
usefulness of which had been lost some years be- 
fore in the conflict of creeds^ I found them largely 
in favor of harmony, and I finally left Olympia 
with the pleasing conviction that Superstition's 
cruel head was receiving a blow from this cen- 
tury's intelligence that would restore the birth- 
right of kindness to the people of the next. 

I had reached the end of water travel at 
Olympia, and from there went southward by rail, 
stopping at Tumwater, from which place I visited 
South Union with Rev. G. F. Mead, of the M. E, 
church, who had a charge there. South Union is 
several miles from the railroad, in the midst of 
the hop-raising district, and I there saw some- 
thing of the struggle against the temptation to 
raise hops for the brewers, rather than grow ce- 
reals, fruits and vegetables. As usual, the women 
were waging a brave warfare against wrong, and 
the beer barrels seemed losing ground. 

Returning to Tumwater, I proceeded on south 
to Bucoda, Chehalis, Centralia and Castle Rock, 
the last named place being my last stopping point 
in Washington for the time. The country from 
Bucoda to Castle Rock is much more level than 
the greater part of the Sound country, but has few 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 105 

attractions, apparently, further than its adapta- 
tion to farming purposes. Castle Rock is on the 
Cowlitz River, which is navigable from that point 
to the Columbia, but which has so strong a cur- 
rent that navigation is much easier down stream 
than up. The town itself is a sunny little hamlet 
with an air more of ease than neatness, but pos- 
sessing some very intelligent and kind hearted 
people. A rather poor quality of coal, which has 
a dull appearance, unlike either the anthracite or 
bituminous coal of the East, is mined within sight 
of the town, and the good-natured inhabitants 
pay six dollars a ton for it, quite thankful that 
Washington produces coal of any quality. 

*'0h," said Mrs. Michener, my hostess and 
one of the older residents, *' we think that is low, 
and we are very proud to think our part of the 
state produces coal." 



106 A woman's journetings 




CHAPTER IX. 

rriving in Portland, Oregon, and finding the 
arrangements for my tour over the state 
yet unmade, I remained a week, the guest of Mrs. 
A. R. Riggs, State W. C. T. U. president, during 
which time I visited Vancouver, Washington, on 
the opposite side of the Columbia, where I met 
Mrs. M. L. T. Hidden, one of the most able W. C. 
T. U. women of Washington. 

Portland, which is on the Willamette River 
but a short distance from its confluence with the 
Columbia and about seventy miles from Astoria, 
has the advantage over the Sound ports of being 
a fresh water harbor, which is a matter of some 
importance to navigators for several reasons, a 
not unimportant one being the fact that vessels 
often come into port with a great weight of bar- 
nacles attached to their hulls, which pests fresh 
water causes to release their hold and the ves- 
sels are thus relieved. While on my way to Seat- 
tle from Port Townsend, a gentleman engaged in 
the shipping interests spoke of a project for cut- 



Ii«^ THE NEW NORTHWEST. 107 

ting a channel from the Sound at Seattle to Lake 
Washington, which is not far from the city, that 
vessels might run into fresh water, so great was 
the need. 

The principal part of Portland is on the west- 
ern bank of the Willamette, and rises gradually 
from the water's edge for a considerable distance, 
finally dotting the sides of steep hills, the sum- 
mits of which form what are called Portland 
Heights. But the city extends over the river and 
takes in a large strip of the peninsula lyinj: be- 
tween the Willamette and Columbia. Until re- 
cently, all that part on the eastern bank of the 
Willamette was a separate corporation, and is 
still known as East Portland, although it has been 
annexed to the city proper. Taken all in all, 
Portland gives a more homelike feeling to an 
Eastern person than any other town of its dimen- 
sions in the Northwest, yet it possesses the novel 
feature of a Chinese Quarter in the very center of 
the city. Second street, which is the third street 
from the river running parallel with it, is occu- 
pied wholly by Chinese for several blocks, and 
other streets intersecting have a sprinkling, for 
greater or less distances, of the queer looking 
shops and quite as queer looking shop men. Yet, 
I never heard a complaint regarding the Chinese 
while in Portland, which I visited four times, re- 
maining, in all, nearly two months, and I never 
had cause to fear in passing through either the 



108 A woman's joukneyixgs 

Chinese Quarter or the vicinity of the wharves at 
night, although I several times had occasion to do 
both. 

February, March, April and a part of May 
V7ere spent in Southern Oregon, my first stopping 
place being Cottage Grove, one hundred and for- 
ty-three miles south of Portland and at the ex- 
treme southern end of the Willamette Valley. On 
the m orning of my departure for the southern 
part of the "State, which was in the first days of; 
February, §1 saw snow for the first time during the 
winter,* the ground being barely covered as I] 
walk ed to the street-car on Portland Heights. 

As the train left the city and its suburbs be- 
hind, and we entered the famed Willamette Val- 
ley, I looked for the beautiful houses, good fences 
and general air of thrift I had pictured as belong- 
ing to a section so long settled, but saw instead, 
ancient and unclassified styles of architecture ; 
few and ill kept fences ; untrimmed fruit trees 
covered with moss, and a gloomy, hibernating as- 
pect quite disastrous to my animated ideal, and, 
also, quite out of keeping with the mild weather. 
The larger towns presented a more modern and 
active appearance, but the farms and smaller sta- 
tions all seemed touched with the wand of Decay. 
The growth of moss on everything added to the 
antiquated appearance, and turning to a country- 
mun in a seat near mine, I asked if the trees in an 
orchard we were passing were alive. 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 109 

"Yes, some of them are, but one or two more 
j ears will kill the last one, if they don't get the 
moss off," was the answer. 

" Can it be removed ? " I asked. 

'' Oh, yes ; it can all be taken off with a little 
work," he said. 

" Why is it not done ?" I asked, in astonish- 
ment ; having noticed many orchards in the same 
condition and concluded there was no remedy, or 
such would not be the case. 

'^Oh, you can't make a mossback work," he 
answered, evidently in some surprise at the ques- 
tion, and with a strong accent on the word 
^'^work." 

Having heard Oregonians spoken of both as 
• ' mossbacks " and " webfeet," I asked if those ti- 
tles applied to all alike. 

•' Not exactly— no ma'm," said he, apparently 
at a loss just how to explain the difference, but 
continued, " I suppose I'm a webfoot, but I'm not 
a mossback. It is mostly the ones that settled 
the country, that we call mossbacks. When they 
came, they were satisfied with enough to eat, and 
it didn't take much work to get that ; and so they 
got into the habit of living that way, and they 
don't want to change — and you can't make them. 



110 A WOMAN^S JOURNEYINGS 

Beginning to understand the situation, I inci- 
dentally asked where the first settlers were from 
and received the answer, " From the South. A 
good many are from Missouri, but they are from 
all over the South." 

Immediately a great light dawned on my 
puzzled brain. I understood at once why the un- 
pretentious habitations, with their numerous '' ad- 
ditions " and out-buildings, had seemed so famil- 
iar to my eyes. Southern ease and simplicity of 
taste, and the inclination to command but not 
work, born of and fostered by slavery, explained 
the whole matter of buildings, orchards, fences 
and the still more difficult one of the disinclina- 
tion to change and the determination not to be 
compelled to do so. Later I was informed that 
when slavery was endeavoring to add to its terri- 
tory, many Southerners were sent to California 
and Oregon.in the hope to outvote the free state set- 
tlers, as was the case soon after with Kansas ; 
and the records of the contest at the time of Ore- 
gon's admission as a state, verify the statement. 
Yet, there is quite another color to the history of 
many of those who followed a few years later, 
but are classed with the early settlers. While I 
was in the state, I learned the story of some of 
the Southern residents who went to Oregon in the 
early sixties, and although they had, through 
birth and education, been in the wrong in some 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. Ill 

instances, the sufferings that had been forced 
upon them would have embittered any but the 
best of minds. Living in free states or slave 
states bordering on them, and sympathizing with 
friends or relatives in the South, they had been 
hunted and persecuted by over-zealous patriots 
and loot-loving guerillas till they had crept to 
their wagons, often at night, and having no other 
way open before them, had turned their faces 
westward, with tears and misgivings, and for 
weary days, and weeks, and months they had 
journeyed on, climbing mountains, and travers- 
ing desolate sage brush plains, many times cold 
and hungry, and ill and suffering from thirst, and 
finally had reached the land ''where rolls the Or- 
egon," and been succored by their old-time asso- 
ciates. Children were born, and friends were 
buried on those dreary marches ; and if those who 
lived through them are sensitive to the touch of 
rude hands on the wounds then received, rebuke 
is much out of place from those who never passed 
through such experiences. 

The aspect presented to the eye by the Wil- 
lamette Valley as one journeys southward is first 
that of a wide and level stretch of country dotted 
here and there with low, water- worn hills and not 
heavily wooded except near the river ; and as pro- 
gress is made, the outlook narrows and the level 
surface is oftener broken ; the complete view giv- 



112 A woman's journeyings 

ing the impression that the now modest Willam- 
ette was a mighty river covering many miles of 
country on each side of its present bed at a time 
not a great number of centuries in the past. The 
products of the valley are similar in kind and 
amount to those of the Middle States with the ex- 
ception of corn, which, though raised for home 
consumption, never reaches the state of luxuri- 
ance seen east of the Rocky Mountains. Apples, 
pears, prunes and plums grow in great abundance, 
but a flaky, gray moss, perhaps more properly, 
lichen, of which mention has been made, is some- 
thing of a pest to fruit growers. The moss-grow- 
ing strip takes in the entire length of the Willam- 
ette Valley and extends to the farther end of the 
Umpqua Valley, which follows the Willamette on 
the south. The moss forms on young trees quite 
as readily as on old, and to a person unacquaint- 
ed with the country, the shrub growth covering 
the hillsides has the appearance in winter of being 
clothed in delicate foliage. 

At Cottage Grove I had the pleasure of meet- 
ing Mr. A. N. Beecher, who is a relative of the 
late Rev. Henry Ward Beecher and was mayor of 
Oberlin, Ohio, at the time of the "John Price res- 
cue," in the old Abolition days. On a later visit, 
I was the guest of his daughter, Mrs. Anna M. 
Boldrick, and found the true Beecher spirit of op- 
position to wrong reproduced in her. 



1 



IJf THE NEW NORTHWEST. 113 

Continuing southward, I visited Drain, Oak- 
land, Wilbur, Roseburg and Myrtle Creek, in the 
Umpqua Valley, which is more broken than the 
Willamette, but very beautiful to the sight, and 
also very productive. The weather being ex- 
tremely wet, the mountain sides had become sat- 
urated, and landslides were of frequent occur- 
rence ; which fact I soon had forced upon my un- 
derstanding by a blockade of the railroad track 
on both sides of the town of Myrtle Creek, at 
which place I was obliged to remain an extra day^ 
not being able to either advance or retreat. For 
about fifty miles southward from Myrtle Creek 
the railroad runs through a most wild and chaotic 
country, which is a part of Southern Oregon's 
gold region ; and about thirty miles of the road is 
a succession of tunnels, *' cuts "and "fills "not 
well calculated for the enjoyment of nervous peo- 
ple, and certainly not successful in defying the 
element of water. Every year the rainy season 
detaches many tons of earth and rock, which bury 
the track and obstruct travel, and consequently, 
Cow Creek Canyon, as the section is called, is 
looked upon with dread by winter travelers ac- 
quainted with the route. Yet, through that coun- 
try, my route to the towns in the extreme south- 
ern part of Oregon lay, and to go, or not to go, 
was the question. The non-arrival of my date 
list, which was to have reached me at Oakland, 



114 

and the assurance of residents and trainmen that 
more or less landslides and their attendant delay 
were sure to occur in the length of time necessary 
to reach all the points desired, decided the ques- 
tion in the negative, and I turned back, leaving 
the extreme southern towns for a future date. 
The train on which I left Myrtle Creek had been 
blockaded several times, the last delay being one 
of six hours, and the passengers were beginning 
to congratulate each other on their escape, when 
the train suddenly came to a stop and we were in- 
formed that the slide before us had "moved down." 
For more than two hours we . waited and 
watched, as the dripping Chinamen shoveled earth 
and rolled the rocks away, presenting, in their pe- 
culiar garments, as they worked under the shadow 
of a high cliff in the deepening twilight, very much 
the appearance of an army of gigantic bats. The 
blockade finally being removed, we reached Oak- 
land about ten o'clock at night, where I remained 
over two days, then continuing northward as far, 
as Albany, in Linn county, and visiting Cress- 
well, Eugene, Junction City, Harrisburg, Halsey, 
and Shedd, on the way. 

When at Eugene, where the State University 
is located, it was my good fortune to be the guest of 
the family of Prof. Condon, State Geologist of Or- 
egon, who has a very valuable geological collec- 
tion, and one that throws great light on the prim- 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 115 

itive history of the entire Northwest. Evidences 
that a semi-tropical climate prevailed in the coun- 
try at one time are numerous in the collection, 
and as Prof. Condon explained the significance of 
the location of each when found, I began to real- 
ize how absorbing such a 'looking backward "^ 
might become. 



116 A woman's J0URN"EYINGS 



CHAPTER X. 

S.OOS county, which is on the Oregon coast at a 
point about one-third of the distance from 
Astoria to San Francisco, and which is reached 
by the ocean route at Coos Bay, is nearly inac- 
cessible from the interior during the rainy season ; 
yet it seemed necessary that I should reach that 
outlying field of W. C. T. U. work before the Pa- 
cific Coast W. C. T. U. Conference and Oregon W. 
C. T. U. Convention, which were to be held in Port- 
land the last of May. Having been informed 
while at Drain that a stage line, operated when 
not closed by floods or landslides, ran into the 
Coos Bay country from that place, and being too 
far from Portland to take the ocean route, I con- 
cluded to return to the former place (Drain) and 
undertake the trip as soon as I should learn that 
the state of the roads would permit. But, to gain 
definite information regarding routes, distances, 
etc., is one of the trials of travel in the Northwest. 

^'There's no stage running from Drain, but 
there's one from Roseburg," said one man, who 
had *^ just been down there." 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 117 

''They can't get through even on horseback 
from Roseburg now, but there's a stage running 
from Drain once a week," another assured me." 

Going to the telegraph office, I learned that 
there was supposed to be a stage running from 
Drain to Scottsburg, thirty- six miles on the Coos 
county route, but was told, "It's ten chances to 
one that you can't get any farther." 

Concluding to take the one chance, I arrived 
at Drain about two o'clock of an extremely wet 
morning, and upon inquiring of the landlord of 
the one hotel, was told that the route was open 
the entire distance to Marshfield, the principal 
town on Coos Bay, and that the stage left at six 
o'clock that morning. 

Four hours' sleep, and a stage, ride of thirty- 
six miles over a mountain road ! The thought was 
appalling, but no time was to be lost, and I asked 
for a room. 

''Haven't got such a thing. There isn't an 
empty bed in the house," the landlord answered^ 
but suggested that I might get some rest on a 
lounge in the sitting-room. 

Acting upon the suggestion, I succeeded in 
reaching a state of chill, damp misery quite unen- 
durable by four o'clock, and passed the remaining 



118 A WOMAN^'S JOURNETIlSrGS 

two hours in physical culture and occasional sotto 
voce remarks on the peculiar tastes of a people 
who, though living in a tomb-like atmosphere, 
considered fire unnecessary. Probably no other 
one source of discomfort to an Eastern person in 
Oregon in the winter time is so great as lack of 
sufficient fire to overcome the dampness. By far 
the greater number of houses in the rural districts 
and smaller towns of Oregon are built entirely of 
wood, without plastering ; the inside walls being 
of rough boards upon which common cotton 
sheeting is tacked as a surface for paper hanging ; 
and as it is quite impossible to ''break joints" 
sufficiently well in such walls to shut out the 
wind, drafts and dampness (also ill-fitting wall 
paper, which gives a look of dilapidation to the 
whole interior) are the results. Added to these is 
the fact that fire other than for the purpose of 
oooking is much more often conspicuous by its ab- 
sence than its presence. 

At six o'clock two vehicles, one a *' buck- 
board " and the other a spring wagon, or, in West- 
ern parlance, a ''hack," were driven up to the 
hotel, and, leaving my heavier baggage in care of 
the landlord, I took a seat in the latter conveyance, 
being confidentially and consolingly informed that 
they were both bad enough, but that I would be 
much more comfortable in the latter, as the for- 
mer not only "slung mud" but always took the 



IK THE NEW NORTHWEST. 119 

lead and, consequently, had to test the depth of 
" sinks " and " washouts ; " while the one I would 
embark in was not likely to do anything worse 
than u])set. 

For the greater part of the distance from 
Drain to Scottsburg the road follows the Umpqua 
River, and in many places the track, which for 
miles is cut into the solid rock of a steep and high 
bluff, is forced so far out by the formation of the 
bank that but a few inches intervene between 
passing vehicles and abrupt descents of greater or 
less depth to the river below. For a distance of 
about two miles in one place on the route the de- 
scent is about two hundred feet, nearly perpen- 
dicular, to the water, while on the landward side 
the rocky cliff rises from ten to twenty -five feet 
so close that it may be reached by the hand in 
places as one rides past. Yet. the higher portions 
of the road were much preferable to the lower ex- 
cept where the ascents were so steep as to be per- 
ilous to teams and passengers. In places near the 
level of the river, the wagons often sunk to the 
axles, and could only be taken through by the 
straining teams after being relieved of all the 
male passengers. 

About midway between Drain and Scottsburg 
is Elkton, which is on Elk Creek and which is 
looked forward to with longing by all familiar 
with the route, and backward upon with regret by 



120 A woman's JOURis^EYIXGS 

every traveler who passes that way. Yet, Elk ton 
is not beautiful ; neither are there gold or silver 
mines at Elkton. But there is a gem— possibly 
more, but certainly one — of great price at Elkton, 
and the gem is in the form of a woman who 
knows how to cook ! A poor, low roofed building 
is the hotel at Elkton, but the table it sets is a de- 
light to the palate, and the memory of its light, 
sweet bread, its perfectly cooked wild game and 
domestic fowls and its delicious, old-fashioned 
" preserves " comes to many a weary traveler who 
has found the task of digesting solid dough, un- 
masticable steaks and fermented fruit too absorb- 
ing to admit of sleep. The amount of food con- 
sumed by our party of eleven was something 
enormous, but the half dollars were handed over 
with such alacrity, and the cooking was praised 
so unstintingly that a much less pleasant host 
than ours would have been fully satisfied. 

Soon after leaving Elkton we reached a point 
where a large landslide had occurred a short time 
before, and where it seemed that the very jarring 
of the wagons on the rocks must bring down an- 
other, which was being held in check by a few 
large pines that had sent their roots deep into the 
crevices of the primitive formation of the hillside 
and were literally holding the ground. Yet, we 
passed on in safety, and when darkness shut the 
dangers from our sight, two ladies in the first 



I 



IX THE XE\V XOUTHWEST. 121 

wagon began singing, and "Nearer My God to 
^ Thee,'- ''Hold the Fort," "Rock of Ages" and 
\ many other familiar hymns rang out hopefully 

and drove away fear. 

We arrived at Scottsburg soon after eight 
o'clock, having been fourteen hours on the way, 
and thirteen in actual motion, showing a rate of 
;speed of a trifle less than three miles an hour. 
'^Lit the end was not yet for my fellow travelers. 
The route from Scottsburg was by way of the 
Umpqua River to the ocean, and as the small 
steamer running between could only make the 
trip at high tide, and only made three trips a 
week, the passengers must either rise at three 
o'clock the next morning or wait two days. Many 
of the men had walked fully half the distance 
just passed over, and as a consequence were in a 
vrorse state of exhaustion than the women ; yet, 
little grumbling was heard. 

A commercial traveler evidently unused to 
such heroic effort, but who had bravely ''kept up 
with the procession," rubbed his stiffened limbs 
and gave vent to his feelings by the remark, 
" This is nothing less than murder I " but immedi- 
ately desisted and joined in the laugh when a 
veteran comrade called "out, ''Don't kick now, 
when we've just got the cinch on *em. They can't 
make us walk on the water." 



122 A woman's journeyixgs 

Notification having been sent of my coming, 
my arrival was expected, and I was shown to the 
residence of Mrs. Ozouf, where I was to rest until 
the second coming of the steamer. Scottsburg is 
in a tiny valley shut in by towering hills, and, 
having no other means of ingress or egress than 
the ones mentioned, is not a place where one 
would look for wealth and ease ; but as, weary 
and mud bespattered, I stepped into Mrs. Ozouf s 
sitting-room, I realized anew that the West was 
a country of surprises. Looking about me, I ev- 
erywhere saw evidences of refinement, and soon 
learned that my host and hostess had but just re- 
turned from a trip to Europe. But the solution of 
the matter was simple. Many years before a 
young Frenchman had hired out to a tanner who 
had located on the Umpqua where the little group 
of houses called Scottsburg now stands, and who 
marketed his products in San Francisco. He 
worked and saved, then married and his wife 
worked with him until he was able to buy out his 
employer. After a time the couple became inde- 
pendent and arrived at the very sensible conclus- 
ion that they had worked long enough and would 
enjoy the proceeds of their labor. 

Rising at about four o'clock the third morning 
after my arrival, I embarked for Gardiner, which 
is on the Umpqua nine miles from its mouth, and 
at which point large lumber mills are located. 



IX THE NEW XOETHWEST. |_li;>3 

There I passed Easter, finding a very intelligent 
body of women arrayed in defense of their homes, 
while a majority of the men had signed petitions 
for their destruction by the sale of liquor ; it being- 
necessary in Oregon for saloon keepers to petition 
for license. From Gardiner, I was to make the 
entire trip to Marshfield without stop, and with 
helpful suggestions regarding wraps for protec- 
tion against the sea breezes and many kind wishes 
from the white-ribbon sisters, I took the boat at 
seven o'clock on Tuesday morning for the ocean, 
where a twenty miles' stage trip on the ocean 
beach intervened between the mouth of thelJmp- 
qua and Coos Bay. The weather was fine, and as 
we drew near the mouth cf the river, I went on 
deck to take my first view of the Pacific. A wide 
line of breakers sending spray to a great height, 
and a limitless stretch of blue water beyond met 
my gaze, and as a troop of thoughts struggled for 
mastery in my mind, I was brought back to my 
surroundings by the question, •' Where's the 
wharf?" 

But, no wharf was to be seen, and while those 
new to the route were wondering where we were 
to make a landing, the steamer stopped in mid- 
stream and a yawl was lowered by which to trans- 
fer us to the shore. 

" How are we to get in ? '' was the next ques- 



124: A WOMAX S JOURNEYINGS 

tion, and for a few minutes that absorbed all 
minds. 

The bottom of the yawl must have been fully 
five feet from the deck of the steamer, and as the 
latter possessed neither steps nor gang board, the 
problem of how to get in had to be solved as best 
it could be. Like many of the other difficult and 
quite unnecessary problems encountered in that 
country, it was solved by the passengers them- 
selves, in one way and another, the captain mak- 
ing no effort towards assistance. 

Two wagons were waiting on the beach near 
a small stable, which was the only sign of human 
handiwork on the lone shore for twenty miles. 
At low tide the ocean beach, over which we 
passed, furnishes an excellent track for wagons^ 
the sand where wet being so solidly packed that 
the wheels make almost no indentation ; and over 
that natural highway stages have been running 
for fully twenty-five years, although in following 
that plan the owners of the line have constantly 
verified the saying, •• Laziness always takes the 
most pains." To utilize the beach it is necessary 
to move with the tides, and that necessitates set- 
ting out at all hours of the night as well as of the 
day. Moreover, a road made through the timber 
a little inland would have the advantage of shel- 
ter and continual safety ; while, by the beach 



IX THE NEW XORTHWEST. 1^5 

route, ocean storms must be breasted, and an ac- 
cident to teams or vehicles while on the way us- 
ually necessitates a camp in the sand above high 
tide mark for many hours. Yet, such suggestions 
would be wholly lost on the owners of the trans- 
portation line from Drain to Marshfield. The 
roads have always been mended w4th fir brush, or 
^^bresh," as the supervisor of roads between Drain 
and Scottsburg called it, the tides have always 
reached Scottsburg, and gone out on the beach, 
and no Oregonian of the ''mossback" species can 
be made to see that any change is necessary. 

Having the company of a young lady school 
teacher and her brother, and the bright sunshine 
making the day comfortably w^arm, I found the 
ride over the beach a delightful one, and on ar- 
riving at the landing opposite Empire City, at the 
entrance to Coos Bay, found the steamer for 
Marshfield waiting ; at which place I arrived in 
the afternoon of the same day. After a few days 
spent in Marshfield, I w^ent to Sumner, which is 
twelve miles distant, and reached by a small 
yacht, which had to be propelled w^th oars the 
greater part of the way on account of lack of suf- 
ficient wind in the slough through which we jour- 
neyed. 

Returning to Marshfield, I prepared for a trip 
to points on the Coquille River— the "Sunny Co- 



126 A woma:n' s jourxeyixgs 

quille," of which a few writers have made men- 
tion and which empties into the ocean at Bandon^ 
some distance south of Empire City. Mr. W. S. 
Vanderberg, of Marshfield, in giving me informa- 
tion regarding the route had mentioned that a 
part of the journey had to be made by rail, but 
that the cars were ''not Pullmans ;" yet I took 
the steamer by which I was to reach the railroads 
in serene ignorance of what was before me. The 
steamer's course was up one of the numerous 
sloughs reaching out from Coos Bay, and just as 
we arrived in sight of the wharf at which we were 
to land, we ran aground. Seeing by the sound- 
ings that we were on the very edge of the chan- 
nel, I remarked somewhat impatiently that if 
the men were". like those in any other place, they 
w^ouid shove the boat off, not noticing to whom I 
had spoken. 

" They ver-ry lekly know their bus'ness," said 
a peculiarly disagreeable voice. 

Turning, I saw an Englishman of the non- 
descript class that is a disgrace to its country, 
and answering that possibly they did, but it had 
been my experience that they generally did not^ 
I paid no more attention to him. 

After waiting two hours for the tide, though 
within twenty-five feet of the shore, w^e reached 
the wharf and found the ''train" waiting for us. 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 127 

A diminutive engine, so unlike a railroad engine 
in form that no one would have suspected its pre- 
tensions in that direction, was standing on a track 
about three feet wide, and attached to it was a 
van, open on each side in the center and so 
swayed over as to suggest its having been resur- 
rected from a recent wreck. The entrance to the 
van was at the end, and a seat ran along each 
side of the latter half of the inclosed part. In 
this we took seats, and when the ''train" was 
ready to start, there were two quarters of beef, a 
carcass of a sheep, several oil cans, a dog, five 
women and nine men, not including the engineer, 
on board. Added to this happy combination was 
the fact that, there being no turn-table, the engine 
could not be placed at the front of the van, and 
we Avere to be backed over to the other end of the 
road. The track ran over high and crumbling 
trestles in places, and as it was extremely rough, 
the swaying of the van was frightful. Every- 
body was more or less alarmed, but the English- 
man was the picture of abject fear. 

As he clung to the side of the van too fright- 
ened to sit down, he looked towards me and be- 
gan : "I've traveled many miles— but I never 
saw — such management as this — " 

'*Oh,"I remarked, ''they very likely know 
their business," and m}' revenge was complete. 



128 A woman's JOUR^'EYIXaS 

We finally stopped where a trestle had been 
washed out by high water and were told that 
there was a mile of the car route that must be 
made by wagons. But where were the wagons ? 
A one-seated vehicle stood before us, and fourteen 
pairs of eyes were turned on it in questioning dis- 
may. As usual, the men all walked, but as one 
seat would hardly accommodate five women, the 
men in charge concluded to put another seat in 
the wagon, and after much deliberation, succeed- 
ed in bringing one out of its muddy seclusion only 
to find it so badly out of repair as to be useless. 

After expectorating tobacco juice over several 
feet of territory, one of the men suddenly re- 
marked, " We might hitch to the sleigh." 

A rude sleigh lay half buried in the mud a 
few feet from where we stood, and as the men 
were binding the whiffletrees on with ropes, in the 
absence of the proper irons, I asked one of the 
women present if sufficient snow fell in that sec- 
tion to warrant the use of sleighs. 

^'Why, that's an Oregon buggy,'' she an- 
swered, and explained that suck vehicles were 
made with a view to traveling over mud quite as 
much as snow. 

Not aspiring to anything higher under the 
circumstances, I took a seat in the sleigh, and we 



IN' THE NEW XORTHWE.ST. 129 

were dragged over the distance at a sacrifice of 
horse flesh that would soon overbalance the gain 
of such methods-. The rest of the trip to the Co- 
quille River, a distance of six miles, was made in 
a large row-boat down a tortuous passage called 
Beaver Slough. In many places the bends were 
so abrupt and frequent that it was necessary for 
the passengers to assist in guiding the boat by 
grasping the overhanging bushes and swinging- 
its prow into the channel, and the slough was at 
many points too narrow for the sweep of the oars. 
When within a mile of the Coquille, the oarsmen 
began to feel the effect of the incoming tide, and 
taking a long rope from the boat, went ashore and 
towed our bark the remaining distance to the 
river, where we waited an hour on a floating- 
wharf for the steamer that was to take us to Co- 

\ quille Cit}^ which is about midway between Ban- 
don and- Central Point ; the latter being at the 

L head of navigation for steamers. 

r 

j. Lest the reader should imagine that the route 

^ just described passes through a region but recent - 
I ly penetrated by settlers, and necessarily lacking 
I in the facilities of modern travel, I will add that 
I young men and women born and raised near it, 
J cannot remember when the unique railroad was 
I built, and an old gentleman whom I asked how 
|*^long passengers had been brought through Beaver 
% Slough, answered, " Well on to forty years." 



130 A woman's JOURXETIXGS 

Coquille City is on the right bank of the river 
as one faces the ocean, and stands upoij a fairly 
even surface just above high water mark. Hav- 
ing a southern aspect and being far enough from 
the mouth of the river to escape the ocean winds, 
it is ver}^ inviting in appearance, and, as a rail- 
road w^as in process of construction from Marsh - 
field to the town, numerous improvements were 
being made. Like nearly all of the river and bay 
towns, its principal industry is in lumber, as tim- 
ber of many beautiful and useful kinds grows in 
that section. 

Myrtle Point, about twenty miles from Co- 
quille, is similarly situated, but is nearer the ab- 
rupt rise of the coast range of hills. The valley 
has long been settled, and farms on the river 
range in value from forty to one hundred dollars 
an acre. Bandon gets the full force of the ocean 
breezes, but is a lovely summer resort, having a 
long line of picturesque beach to the southward 
and many points from which grand ocean views 
may be had. 

Returning to Marshfield by the same route 
over which I had gone, the experience was even 
more eventful than before. The row-boat being 
so heavily laden that the oarsmen became ex- 
hausted, the passengers were obliged to " take a 
hand,'' and the ludicrous picture of a slight built 



IN THE NEW NOKTHWEST. 131 

young Hebrew commercial traveler, as he stood 
up in tlie boat, clad in a storm-coat reaching to 
his shoe soles and waving a dripping oar from- 
one side to the other in his good-natured but outre 
attempts to assist, comes to me with convulsing 
force as I write. On reaching the steamer's 
wharf, at the end of the non-descript railroad, we 
found the tide out and the steamer fast aground, 
as usual. Seven hours to wait, with empty stom- 
achs and no shelter but a fireless wharf house, 
was the prospect before us ; but by walking half 
a mile or more we reached a camp of men engaged 
in building the new Coos Bay R. R, where we- 
were given such food as the men had to offer, and 
a well warmed tent to sit in till midnight, at which 
time we reached the steamer by small boats. Odj 
the return journey from Scottsburg to Drain, I 
found the mountain shrubs clothed in a wealth of 
bloom so charming as to divert the thoughts from-, 
all hardships and cause the memory of the route- 
to remain in the mind as a beautiful picture, in-- 
stead of a valley of sighs. 

Going to Portland and remaining through the- 
State W. C. T. U. Convention and Pacific Coast 
Conference, I then returned to Southern Oregon,, 
visiting Riddle's, Glendalo, Grant's Pass, Med- 
ford, Jacksonville, Talent and Ashland, the last 
being but a short distance from the California 
line. Ashland is the largest town in the famed 



132 A WOMAN'S JOURXETIXaS 

Itruit section of Southern Oregon, and depends 
mainly upon that industry for its support, al- 
though the surrounding country is full of mines 
-of greater or less value. Fruit grows without irri- 
gating as a general thing, and the amount pro- 
duced from the space devoted to the purpose is a 
source of much astonishment to those unacquaint- 
^ed with the country. 

Mrs. Annie H. H. Russell, whose guest I was 
•during a part of my stay in Ashland, is one of the 
most remarkable women I met Avith in my w^an- 
derings, and deserves a passing notice. Having 
been obliged to assist her husband, w4io is a mar- 
ble cutter, in providing for the wants of a fast in- 
creasing family, Mrs. Russell began by designing 
•embellishments for tombstones, and soon picking 
up the chisel and mallet, finally became so expert 
in their use that she far outstripped her husband, 
.aud now leads where she once followed. From 
j)Overty, they have reached affluence, and yet 
Mrs. Russell is the mother of eleven children and 
has found time to lead the W. C. T. U. forces for 
years. To her I was indebted for a drive among 
the foothills of the Siskyeu Mountains, wiiere she 
pointed out many places of interest, among them 
being an immense granite block deposited on the 
top of a high peak by some unimaginable force 
.and called Pilot Rock ; wdiich landmark has re- 
;3tored to his bearings many a footsore "forty- 



IN THE NEW XOKTHWE^T. ioo 

I niner *' and other bewildered traveler on the oldi 
'' overland trail,*' not far from where we viewed it^ 

Returning northward again, I finally visited 

Hillsboro, Forest Grove and many other towns on- 

I the west side of the Willamette River, where I 

r witnessed the process of harvesting in the large- 

wiieat fields. 

''You must see a cook-wagon," said Mrs. S. 
A. McKune, whose guest I was at Amity, a small 
I station on the railroad running from Portland to^ 
Corvallis. 

Accordingly, we drove out to an immense 
field and viewed the harvesting outfit, which con- 

\ sisted of a reaper, a thresher— both run by steam 
— and a large covered w^agon having a cooking, 
range in the front end and narrow^ tables running 
along each side. The wagon w^as open at the 
sides, and on the outside were hinged seats, which 

> could be let down when not in use. A bright 

; young lady school teacher was "head cook," and,, 
with tw^o assistants, seemed to be spending her 
vacation quite as satisfactorily to herself as 
though wading the surf on the coast with 
her comrades. A diminutive tent stood at a little 

[ distance from the wagon, and the young lady told 
me that she and her assistants lodged there, while 
the men carried blankets and slept in the straw- 
piles. 



134 A WOMAlsT'S JOUKNEYIXGS 

"We are protected from rudeness or insult, 
and are paid the same wages as the men, or we 
"would not remain/' she assured me ; and as I 
Tthought of the pale shop girls in the cities, breath- 
ing vile air and working for half pay, the situa- 
tion; with open air exercise and good wages, 
.seemed Paradisical by contrast. 



IIS" THE >'EW NORTHWEST. 135 



CHAPTER XI. 

^n the morning of September 14, 1891, 1 started 
eastward from Portland by way of the Un- 
ion Pacific R. R, , and knowing that the country 
to Hood River, a distance of sixty miles, was as 
yet unbroken by the W. C. T. U. plowshare, I de- 
termined to make a thorough exploration of the 
route, which determination gave nie a view of 
two of the most beautiful sights witnessed on the 
Pacific Slope. Stopping at a small place called 
Fair view, I formed a society and inquired what 
was beyond. 

'^Latourelle Falls is the next place of any 
size," said the pastor of whom I made the inquiry. 

Not finding the place on my guide book, I 
was somewhat perplexed, but being assured that 
the town was one of the older ones on the Colum- 
bia, which the Union Pacific R. R. follows for a 
good distance from Portland, I concluded to visit 
it and see for myself. Consequently, I was landed 
on an unsheltered platform on the bank of the 
Columbia a short time after leaving Fairview, 



136 A WOMAis's JOURXEYINGS 

and soon found my way to the residence of the 
superintendent of a large lumber mill, which 
seemed to be the one place of activity ni the 
town. And then the secret of the tOAvn's obscur- 
ity came to light. The story w^as that a Mr, 
Latourelle had journeyed up the Columbia and 
pitched his tent at that point long before the 
river's mighty cliffs had echoed to the sound of a 
railroad whistle, and that as the years passed, 
finding solitude was still solitude, however beauti- 
ful, he had taken to himself an Indian woman as 
wife. Finally paleface civilization came along 
and brought with it a railroad, which Mr. Latour- 
elle quite naturally welcomed, but which Mrs. 
Latourelle, quite as naturally, could not see the 
need of. The former affixed his signature to the 
document giving the railroad company the right 
of way through the Latourelle estate, but his 
native companion flatly refused to aid or abet any 
such enterprise. As a consequence, the document 
lacked a name, and until that should be supplied, 
the railroad company purposed ignoring the 
existence of the town as far as practicable, and 
would neither build a depot, allow the name of 
the station on their guide books nor even check 
baggage to the place. It w^as a contest of wills- 
bet ween the Indian woman and the great U. P. 
R. R. Co , but the lastest accounts showed the 
former to be pursuing the even tenor of her way 
in unmoved contempt of the powerful corporation. 



IN THE NEW XORTHAVEST. 137 

But, those who visit Latourelle Falls will not 
wonder that the Indians, the first possessors, are 
attached to the place. Just back of the town and 
but a short walk from it, is a waterfall so unlike 
any of the many others to be seen, and sur- 
rounded by such wild and unusual scenery as to 
cause one to wonder why so little is known of it 
i>y the public. A road ending in a narrow path 
along the base of a. high wall of rock leads to the 
fall, and as my companion led the wa}^ around an 
angle in the wall, I found, facing me, a beetling 
cliff over which a" body of water was falling, 
clear of all obstructions, a distance of, probably, 
two hundred feet,^ and striking in a pool of 
mysterious j depth below. As no measurement 
had been made by any with whom I talked, I 
could not learn the exact depth of the fall, but 
give the distance mentioned as an estimate. 
Quite in keeping with the surroundings, we 
felt a tremor of the earth under our feet as wo 
stood gaziHg at the fall, and afterwards found 
that it was the advance agent of a sharper earth- 
quake shock later in the evening. 

Many havej heard [of Bridal Veil Falls, and 
have seen the"picture of a stream flowing over a 
contracted space on a mountain's side and widen- 
ing out like a veil as it descends, but there are, 
doubtless, some in whose minds the picture is 
associated, as it was in the writers, with ungrasp- 
able solitudes of nature, and to such, a brief 



description of actual experience may not be 
uninteresting. Having been given the name of 
the treasurer of the Bridal Veil Lumbering Co. 
by the superintendent at Latourelle, through 
whose ir)terest and that of his family I met with 
a fair measure of success at the latter place,, on 
arriving at Bridal Veil station, I inquired for the 
treasurer and was agreeably surprised to find the 
gentleman to be Mr. J. S. Bradly, formerly of 
Newark, Ohio. 

''We live rather high, out here,'' jocosely 
remarked Mr. Bradly, pointing to a beautiful 
cottage on an immense bluflf of the Columbia, as 
he led the way to his residence ; '' but '• he added, 
''I think you will like the view when you once 
get up." 

The house is reached by a stairway similar 
to those in the Sound country, but constructed 
with more of a view to ease of ascent, and having 
seats for rest and observation. The top of the 
eminence is level for a considerable space, giving 
ample room for the cottage and its grounds, and 
commands a view of the Columbia both up and 
down the stream ; while to the right of the cottage 
runs a deep gorge, down which a lumber flume 
is built from the mills above, and across which is 
a high mountain with a wagon road cut into its 
side far above the peak of the cottage tower. 

The company's plant extends from the station 



IX TH!:: NEW XORTHWEST. 130 

of Bridal Veil, where a large supply store is 
located and where the lumber is taken from the 
flume for shipment, two miles up into the hills, 
and five miles inland in the deep forest of the 
highlands, making seven miles in all. At the end 
of the two first miles is Glenwood, where the 
mills are located, and where the president of the 
company, Mr. L. C. Palmer, resides. Appoint- 
ments were made at both places, and after speak- 
ing at the station, I prepared to try the mountain 
road. A trip from the station to the mills is usu- 
ally made three times a week in good weather by 
a wagon carrying supplies, and in that convey- 
ance, which was drawn by five mules, one of 
which was ridden by the driver, I took a seat in 
the early morning of a bright autumn day, amidst 
numerous sacks and packages as firmly lashed on 
as for a storm at sea. As we began the steep as- 
cent, I soon found that such an occurrence as 
being unseated and dashed over a precipice was 
quite possible, and firmly grasping a cross rope of 
the lashings with one hand, and slipping the fin- 
gers of the other through a large link pendent 
from a chain with which the forward part of the 
wagon was bound, I prepared for emergencies. 
The driver was often obliged to stop and give his 
heated team a breathing spell, at which times I 
could relax my vigilance and enjoy the wonder- 
ful view across the deep canyon. In places, the 
sight of the abrupt descent but a foot or two from 



140 A AVOMAN'S JOURNEYIXGS 

the track was more than even well trained nerves 
could bear, and in those spots, I literally '* turned 
my face to the wall ; " for the mountain side is- 
nearly an upright wall the entire distance. And 
in that way I ascended from the valley below, ta 
the heights above Bridal Veil Falls. 

From Glenwood, a well built railroad owned 
by the company runs the remaining five miles^ 
being the means by which the supply of timber i& 
brought to the mills, and arrangements had been 
made that I should be taken over the road, that I 
might miss no opportunity of sight-seeing. Ac- 
cordingly, soon after luncheon, which was in 
preparation when we reached Glenwood, I accom- 
panied Mr. and Mrs. Palmer in the wildest of wild 
rides in an engine cab for half the length of the- 
road, and on a log car the remaining distance, ta 
vary the experience. 

''There are several stations on the way," 
shouted Mr. Palmer, as he clung by an iron rail 
to the outside of the bounding, swaying cab, " but 
3"ou may miss them if you don't keep a sharp- 
lookout." 

The '"stations" referred to were occasional 
cabins occupied by claim holders, who seemed to 
enjoy our novel *' excursion " quite as much as we. 
On we went, over trestles and around curves,, 
sometimes in deep woods, and sometimes passing 
large tracts of fallen timber, till we reached the; 



TX THE NEW NORTHWEST. 141 

terminus, where a few deserted cabins stood, 
which Mr. Palmer humorously assured me consti- 
tuted a town, bearing tlie mysterious name of 
'' Goblin " ; having been christened in honor of an 
apparition that was said to roam in the vicinity. 

The waterfall has been too often pictured by 
travelers to need any mention here, and is faith- 
fully portrayed in the illustrated guides ; but a 
feat accomplished by Mrs. Bradley and a friend 
has not been chronicled. 

'* I once walked that two miles to the mills on 
a plank a foot wide," said Mrs. Bradley, as we sat 
before the tire after my return from Glenwood. 

'' How ?" I asked, in great surprise. 

*• You may well ask, but I cannot myself tell 
how I did it. Yet, I did accomplish the undertak- 
ing, and I have not yet recovered from the 
effects," she answered, and then continued : 
^^You know the flame is built along the side of 
the canyon. Well, on a level with the bottom of 
the flume and resting on the same supports that 
hold it are planks a foot wide running the entire 
length of the flume, as a means by which it may 
be reached to make repairs. A young lady from 
Portland was visiting me, and being ready for ad- 
venture, insisted on attempting the feat of walk- 
ing up to the mills. I at last consented to accom- 
pany her, and we started. There was no lumber 
being sent down the flume at the time, but when 



142 A ^VOMAX'S JOURNETIXGS 

we had proceeded so far that turning back was 
impossible— for we soon learned that going up 
was much easier than coming down— the men, 
not knowing, of course, that we were on the way, 
began sending down railroad timber, and as every 
little obstruction of the current of w^ater caused 
spray to dash over the side of the flume upon us, 
every thread in our garments was soon drenched. 
My young son was w4th us, but he w^as as helpless 
as we. To have turned back, would have been 
certain death, and our only hope was in going 
forward and endeavoring to avoid the force of the 
spray, wiiich, if we had received it in full, would 
have knocked us off the plank. Lumber, too, 
often shoots over the sides of the flume, and you 
can imagine where w^e w^ould have been if 
any had struck us. The distance to the rocks be- 
low us was eighty feet at one place, and, to add to 
our horror, when we reached it we found the 
planks on which we walked were so far below the 
flume, to which we had held as we went along, 
that we could barely touch it with our finger tips. 

''Yet, you went on to the mills without acci- 
dent ! " I exclaimed, not thinking such a feat pos- 
sible!" 

"Yes— that is, I did,"' she ans>vered. "My 
young friend climbed upon the bank just before 
we reached the mills, but I w^ent on to the end. I 
did not realize how much my nervous system had 



IX THE NEW NORTHWEST. 143 

suffered until afterwards : but the picture of that 
awful chasm still comes before my eyes at night, 
sometimes, and I cannot rest."' 

And those who gaze down the canyon at Bri- 
dal Veil will not w^onder that nerves were over- 
taxed by such an experience. 

In contrast to a great number of similar com- 
l panics found in the West, the Bridal Veil Lum- 
J bering Co. closes its supply store on Sunday, f or- 
l bids the use of liquor on its grounds, and has 
: established week day and Sunday schools for the 
j education of the children of its employes. The 
I result is that the four hundred men employed 
I make up, with their families, an intelligent, well- 
1 dressed body, which would be a credit to any com- 
munity. 

Proceeding to Cascade Locks, where the 
great locks of the Columbia \vere in process 
of construction by the United States Govern- 
ment, I found a town said to contain five hun- 
dred people, but without either church building or 
service, although possessing nine flourishing sa- 
loons. Upon inquiring where public meetings 
were held, I v/as informed that, a part of the in- 
habitants being Roman Catholic, and a part Prot- 
estant, creeds had so v/arred against piety that no 
meetings of any kind were allowed in the school- 
house, the only public building in the place. The 
outlook seemed forbidding, but so easy of access 



144 A woman's journeyixgs 

is humanity's better side that the use of the hall 
owned by the M. W. of A., the only one in the 
town, was given me gratuitously and was well 
filled. 

Rain was falling when I left Cascade Locks, 
which was on September 22nd, but on arriving at 
Hood River I began to realize that I was again 
entering the arid region. The familiar dust was 
everywhere, but as Dr. Thomas, whose wife, Mrs. f 
L. R. Thomas, was superintendent of the depart- ^ 
ment of Juvenile Work of the Oregon W. C. T. ' 
U., met me at the station, I lost sight of the un- 
pleasant features in the realization that I was to - 
enjoy a rest from pioneering. 

Mount Hood, which has become a resort for 
summer tourists, is reached from Hood River sta- 
tion by wagon road, but my time would not admit 
of more than a drive in its direction far enough to 
get a breath of the air chilled by its mighty gla- 
cier. Fruit grows well in the vicinity, and those 
who are wise enough to engage in its culture will 
reap a harvest of dollars from future pilgrims to '. 
the wonderful mountain, which is said to still 
send up occasional puffs of vapor from its heated 
depths. 

Having passed three very pleasant days at 
Hood River, I took the train for The Dalles, which 
is a town of over two thousand inhabitants, but 
had recently been visited by a destructive fire. 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 145 

There Mrs. Lee, wife of Hon. J. D. Lee, met 
me a.nd showed me the devastated territory where 
a thriving little city had stood but a short time 
before. 

'• What was the cause of the fire ?'' I asked. 

'• Whisky," was the answer ; and in that one 
^vord was summed up the cause of the loss of hun- 
dreds of thousands of dollars in business blocks ; 
the destruction of churches, city buildings and 
homes ; and of hundreds of people being without 
food or clothing. 

But the United States Government, and the 
great state of Oregon had received their revenue ! 

The W. C. T. U. Reading-room had escaped 
destruction, and the members of the society had 
risen rapidly in the estimation of the sufferers, 
many of whom had invited the town's destruction 
by licensing the liquor traffic. 

The name was given to the place, by French 
explorers, from the fact that at that point the Co- 
lumbia is broken by rocky barriers, producing nu- 
merous falls and rapids. The Dalles is at the be- 
ginning of the arid country, and the river above 
that point is spoken of as the upper Columbia, 
while below, it is designated as the lower Colum- 
bia. 

Finding the name "Grant's" coming next on 
the list of places marked as needing my attention. 



146 A WOMAN'S JOURNEYIXGS 

I accordingly embarked for that place ; being- 
blissfully ignorant of the predominance, in some 
places, and persistent aggressiveness of Colum- 
bia River sand. Arriving at Grant's, I found 
a small cluster of buildings on a stretch of sand 
that w^ould have been level had it not been drifted 
into windrows, and that varied the monotony of ly- 
ing inert by rising up in generous sections on the 
wings of a strong breeze that was blowing, and 
striking one's flesh with the sting of insects. My 
first inquiry was when the next train would pass,, 
but as the baggagemen, true to the reputation of 
their class, had crushed my traveling trunk— 
which, by the way, was both small and strong, of- 
fering no temptation to over-strained muscles — I 
was obliged to see what I thought to be my only 
hope pass, in the form of a local freight 
train, before my baggage could be put in 
traveling condition. Finding that the place 
did not possess an audience room of any de- 
scription, I gazed out over the desolate waste 
of sand in a vain attempt to determine what 
to do next, while the agent tried to excuse 
the ruining of the trunk, and a man whose 
breath smelled of liquor assured me he was a 
*• temperance man/' and had been ''one of them 
when they were running," but that they had ••' all 
gone away now " — which last I was quite ready 
to believe. And then, dear sisters of the W. C. 
T. U., and those, too, who do not know the magic 



IN THF XEW XORTHWEST. 3 4? 

^. of our badge, just then I caught the gleam of a 
' white ribbon under a wind blown dust wrap, worn 
j by a small woman vvho seemed to have drifted in 
e on a sand cloud. 

On my explaining the "situation, the lady, 
f (whose name I have lost and vainly written for) 
i said, ''i live across the river, at Columbus, three 
miles from here, and you must go home with 
[. me ; '' then explaining that she was secretary of 
i the Columbus, Wash., W. C. T. U. 

^ "But, how do you get there?" I asked; as- 

f. the Columbia is both wide and swift at that point. 

**0h, I have a boat," she said, ''and if tlie- 
i. river is too rough for that, there is a ferry a half 
I mile below." 

Having my baggage stored, we went to the- 
river, and finding the waves too high for safety,. 
walked the half mile to the ferry in sand shoe- 
f deep and crossed over to the Washington shore. 

I Columbus is one of the older towns on the- 
■ upper Columbia and lies on an interval between 
■■ the water's edge and the high bluff which was,. 
[ doubtless, once the bank of the river, and which 
[ at that point makes a sharp curve, thus sheltering- 
; the town from the sandstorms brought by the up- 
stream gales. The place is a shipping point for 
great quantities of fine fruit, which is raised in 
" orchards adjacent to the town, and I there for the- 



148 A WOMAN'S JOURXEYINGS 

:first time saw peaches and grapes growing to per- 
fection in Washington. My host and hostess, Mr. 
and Mrs. Hicenbothem, had settled in the place 
twenty-five years before, when Indians were their 
principal associates, and they both laughed hear- 
tily at my experieijpe. 

" You have had a fine time compared with 
that of the first women who came here in the in- 
terest of the Union," said Mr. H. " Did you ever 
hear how Mrs. Reese crossed the river from 
liere ? '' 

Having read an official report of the pioneer 
organizer Mrs. Mary Bynon Reese, in which she 
mentioned a perilous trip across the Columbia in 
;a row-boat, I answered that I had read of it. 

'' But you probably did not get the whole of 
it. I do not think Mrs. Reese ever knew all the 
facts,'' said he, and then proceeded to tell the 
story : '• The way it was, Mrs. Reese had to be 
taken over to the railroad before daylight, to reach 
the train, and I concluded to take her to Biggs sta- 
tion, as that is nearer than Grant's, and being- 
down stream, we would not have to pull against 
the current. There are rapids close to the station 
at Biggs, but the passage is safe enough in day- 
light, and I did not anticipate any trouble ; al- 
though the Columbia is a treacherous stream at 
best. So I took an Indian with me to help row, 
.and we started. But we had not gone far before 



IX THE NEW NORTHWEST. 140 

I found that the current shifted the boat around' 
in an unusual way, and as we could not see where- 
we were, I began to feel uneasy. Yet, I did not 
think there was any danger, and as we had to- 
pull with all our might, there was not much tim& 
to listen for the sound of the rapids. Mrs. Reese- 
did not seem to be much frightened, and I was- 
af raid to say anything for fear of making matters 
worse. But all at once I heard a rush of water 
over the rocks and knew we were in for it. Mrs. 
Reese said it was ' awful rough,' but I nudged the 
Indian, and he never opened his mouth. I ex- 
pected an upset, which would, probably, have 
been death for all of us, but I hoped for the best, 
and in less time than I can tell it, we were in 
smooth water and close to a place where we could 
land. We did not tell Mrs. Reese, and I do not 
believe she knows to this day that she actually 
went over the rapids." 

As I crossed the river on m}^ return to Grant's^ 
three days later, I was given some information 
that seemed to throw light on the mysterious fluc- 
tuation of the current of which Mr. Hicenbothem 
had spoken, but which information was not of a 
nature to inspire one with a feeling of personal 
safety or an inclination to search further into the 
mystery. A young man in charge of the matters 
of a company that had undertaken the construc- 
tion of a^ portage railroad on the Washington 
shore kindly volunteered to row over to Grant's 



150 A woma:n'S jourxeyixgs 

-with me, thus saving me the long walk in the 
sand from the ferry, and as we coasted up the 
:shore to a favorable point for crossing, he told me 
'Of the character of the bottom of the stream as 
shown by soundings. 

'' There will be twenty feet of water in one 
place, and not more than one in another not six 
feet away,'' said he. Pointing towards a perfectly 
bare and perpendicular cliff that rose out of the 
^vater a short distance before us, he asked : '-Do 
you see. how smooth the water is at the base of 
that cliff ?" 

Noticing that the water for a considerable 
space seemed entirely undisturbed, I answered in 
the affirmative, and he continued : ^' When we 
were surveying along here, we undertook to sound 
i:hat place, and as no line seemed to reach the bot- 
tom, we thought there must be a current that 
swept it along, and so we tried sinking a hundred 
foot cable with a big buoy attached ; but, cable, 
buoy and all went out of sight, and we have never 
been able to find them.'' 

Our boat was entering on the still water as he 
ceased speaking, and the horror of the unfath- 
omed depth beneath me overcame all desire to 
know more. Yet, it would seem probable that a 
sink of such dimensions would receive an influx 
from subterranean sources, at times, that would 
interfere with its serenity and cause fluctuations 
.at its surface. 



IX THE XEVV X0RTHWE5T. 151 

Proceeding to Arlington, which is also on the 
river, I found a small town over which the sand 
was drifting at a rate that promised entire oblit- 
eration. A number of stage lines running into 
the interior center of that point, producing some 
activity in business, yet, no attempt had been 
made to build wind breaks to protect the place, 
and many of the shops were deserted, which 
added to the general appearance of desolation. 
While there, I learned, both by observation and 
experience, the meaning of the term, " sand-lap- 
ping," which I had heard used once or twice by 
•countrymen. The sand is driven into the pores 
with such force by the strong winds that the lips 
^ become rough, and lapping them into flexibility 
with the tongue is instinctively resorted to. 
Hence, '' Sand-lappers of the Upper Columbia '' is 
a title that should take its place beside '' Sound 
€lam-diggers '' and '^Willamette Web-feet*" 

Pendleton, eighty-eight miles east of Arling- 
ton and over eight hundred feet farther skyward, 
: is the largest town in Eastern Oregon, and is sit- 
i uated in the productive valley of the Umatilla 
'f River. Several Indian women in bright colored 
i satin dresses presented a novel sight as I walked 
f to the residence of Mrs. N. E. De Spain, on my ar- 
1 rival, and I learned they were from the Umatilla 
I reservation, near the town. Mission schools had 
' been established among the Umatillas many years 
before, and the result w^as an industrious and 



^. 



152 A WOMAX'S JOURXEYINGS 

prosperous tribe. Pendleton is noted for nothing- 
else as machj perhaps, as its intelligent inhabi- 
tants. Being settled from the better classes of 
Eastern and Southern people, it has less of the 
sensational in its makeup than many other towns, 
and consequently has the appearance of being^ 
older. It has a population of nearly five thous- 
and, and has schools, churches and business 
places equal to those in even larger towns. The 
Union Pacific has a branch from there to Spokane 
Falls, and a branch of the Northern Pacific 
reaches there from Pasco. 

From Pendleton, a jaunt of thirty-six miles- 
on the Spokane branch of the Union Pacific 
brought me to Athena, Weston and Milton, the 
latter being near the Oregon line and but a short 
distance from Walla Walla, in Washington. The 
country was extremely dry, yet I saw fine fruit 
in abundance, and large patches of delicious mel- 
ons lay rotting in the dust for want of purchasers. 

Returning to Pendleton, I continued on the 
main line to La Grande, seventy five miles dis- 
tant, the first fifty miles of which make a rise of 
over three thousand feet to Kamela, wjiere the al- 
titude is over four thousand feet above sea level, 
being the highest reached by the Union Pacific in 
Oregon. I found La Grande in a high state of ex. 
citement over a recent murder and the probable so- 
lution of the mystery surrounding two committed 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 153 

a short time before. The body of one of the mur- 
dered men had been sent on to Portland in an 
empty car, and that of another discovered under 
a pile of coal, but the third had been found in a 
saloon ; his murderers either lacking opportunity 
or becoming too intoxicated, as was supposed, to 
dispose of it. The proprietor and employes of the 
saloon had been arrested, and the pitiful yet dis- 
gusting spectacle of men who had given their 
influence towards the perpetuation of such crimes 
by licensing the sale of liquor, clamoring for the 
strangling of those who had been maddened to 
murder by its use, was again before the public. 

At Elgin, twenty-one miles up a branch of the 
Union Pacific, I found the women arrayed as in 
Gardiner, for the defense of their homes, while 
the men, with some exceptions, were inviting ruin 
by favoring the erection of a brewery. Union, 
my next stopping point on the main line, is the 
county seat of Union county, in which La Grande 
and Elgin are located, and I there visited the 
county buildings. As I went into the jail, I saw 
an iron cage eight or ten' feet square, in which 
eight souls, men and boys, were huddled promis- 
cuously, and on inquiring, I found that three were 
supposed to be murderers — not yet having been 
tried— and the remaining five were accused of 
comparatively trivial offenses. The faces of sev- 
eral showed a pallor that was shocking, and I 



154 A WOMA^''^ JOURXEYIXGS 

asked how long- they had been confined in such ; 
close quarters. 

"I have been in this cage thirteen months, " 
said one. 

"You are allowed to come out every day for ^ 
exercise, I sui^pose/* I said. 

'' I have been out just four times since I have I 
been here,'" he answered. 

And I found his answer to be correct. Some 
prisoners had escaped many months before, and 
the sheriff remarked in explanation of the state of 
affairs, that he did not "mean to be blamed 
again.'- So, most shocking cruelty was being de- 
liberately practiced that justice (?) might not be 
thwarted I 

In answer to my question as to how^ many 
came to imprisonment through the use of intoxi- 
cating liquor, five promptly admitted its direct 
agency, and in five other cases it was found to 
have been the indirect cause ; which left but one 
of the total eleven in the jail untouched by its 
blight. Not so much as a line of reading matter 
had been furnished the men, yet the town had 
several churches, and two expounders of the Scrip- 
tures were playing croquet but a short distance 
from the jail. 

Visits to North Powder, Baker City and 
Huntington completed the Oregon work, and 
Idaho was before me. 



ly THE XEW XORTHWEST. 155 



CHAPTER XII. 

age, rock and dust, varied by sparse patches 
of timber with '' magnificent distances" be- 
tween, and occasional glimpses of the Snake 
Kiver and its diminutive tributaries make up the 
scenery in Southern Idaho along the line of the 
Union Pacific R. R. 

Weiser, Payette and Caldwell are the princi- 
pal towns between the Oregon line and Nampa, 
from which place a branch runs to Boise City, the 
state capital. Caldwell is distinguished from the 
other towns by a foundation of alkali so pure that 
to indulge in a flower or vegetable garden, it is 
necessary to have several inches of the surface 
scraped away and replaced by productive earth. 

At Nampa I reached the home of Mrs. Sarah 
H. Black, president of the Idaho W. C. T. U., 
whose husband, Rev. James P. Black, is pastor of 
the Presbyterian Church at that place. From 
Nampa I went to Boise City, where I remained 
three days. The country from Nampa to Boise 
City is level valley land, and very productive with 
irrigation. I saw several large orchards of young 



156 A WOMAN S JOURNEYIXGS 

trees, and was toM that fruit growing was likely 
to become one of the principal industries. Very 
few evidences of wheat raising were visible, but 
close cropped alfalfa made a green carpet over all 
the fields where the sage brush had been cleared 
away. Machines for pulling sage brush were in 
operation within sight from the car win- 
dows, and the uprooted bushes were to be seen 
piled in large heaps near the houses, for fueh 
Boise City has the pleasant feature of plenty 
of shade trees, being easily irrigated from 
the adjacent hills, and bears indications of 
having been a thriving town before a railroad- 
reached it. I there met Mrs. J. C Straughan, who 
was appointed one of the commissioners to the 
(Columbian Exposition from Idaho, and found in 
her one of the principal W. C. T. U. workers of 
the state. 

At Mountain Home, a small town fifty-five- 
miles east of Nampa and about four hundred feet 
above that place, the wild rabbits hopped famil- 
iarly out of the sage to greet me as I walked 
through the town, and seemed to be all the inhab- 
itant^ at home except the saloon keepers. The 
only church building in the place was controlled 
by the Episcopalians, who would neither hold ser- 
vices in it themselves, nor allow any other denom- 
ination to do so, and I learned that a Presbyterian 
missionary had but a few days before been re- 
fused the use of the schoolhouse for a meeting, al- 



IX TH>: XEW XORTHWEiX. 157 

though there had been no religious services in the 
town, which had recently become a county seat, 
for a year. Yet, Idaho had disfranchised the Mor- 
mons, ostensibly on account of their religious be- 
lief. 

Proceeding to the Court House, I made some 
remarks on consistency that soon secured me an 
audience room ; but a doubt still lingers in my 
mind as to whether the first inhabitants, the com- 
panionable rabbits, have been greatly improved 
upon in that little hamlet, the principal street of 
which is an almost unbroken line of saloons. 
There were some shining exceptions to the gen- 
eral ^pathetic obtuseness, among them being the 
probate judge, the deputy sheriff's family and a 
few others, but they made up so small a minority 
that improvement seemed yet far away. 

At Glenn's Ferry, I found a reading-room, 
supported by the U. P. R. R. Co. and conducted 
by the Y. M. C. A. ; which is but one of a number 
established in the same way along the line of the 
road, as safeguards against demoralization from 
the hardships and loneliness incident to railroad 
life in a new country. By much effort the secre- 
tary in charge had succeeded in having services 
held in the schoolhouse, the only public building, 
every Sabbath, which drew many men from the 
saloons. 

Shoshone is a town of perhaps one thousand 



158 A woman's journeyixgs 

inhabitants, and has one church building and a 
resident pastor (Methodist). The W. C. T. U. has 
tliere a free reading-room and has done much to- 
wards building up the town. Mrs. A. S. Senter^ 
president of the local Union, is one of Idaho's in- 
telligent and clear-sighted women, and, with her 
able assistants, wields an influence much needed 
in that infant state. 

The presence of snow, and an increasing chil- 
liness in the atmosphere admonished me not to 
risk a snow blockade by attempting a trip on the 
Wood River branch from Shoshone to Ketchum, 
and I continued on a hundred miles to Pocatello^ 
from which point the Ogden, Butte and Helena 
branch runs northward to Helena, Mont., by 
which route Yellowstone Park is reached, and 
southward to Ogden and Salt Lake City. 

At Pocatello, Mrs. H. V. Piatt kindly invited 
me to a drive over the town, and I witnessed the 
singular sight of a city on wheels. The buildings, 
which were mostly cottages, had been built on 
railroad land with the privilege of removal at 
such time as an Indian reservation adjoining 
should be opened to purchasers, and that time 
having arrived, the town had taken up its bed, 
board and habitation and was in process of mi- 
gration to a foundation of its own. Gold had been 
discovered close to the city, and high hopes of a 
^' boom " were being entertained. 



IN THE NEW XORTHWEST. 150 

A trip to Yellowstone Park in December was 
not desirable, and as the delay caused by visits to 
the towns on the branch towards Helena might 
throw me into snow drifts in Wyoming, I con- 
cluded to turn southward from Pocatello, and 
finding Oxford to be first on my list, I took a train 
about four o'clock of a chilly morning for that 
place. Having made careful inquiry as to wheth- 
er Oxford was immediately on the railroad, or 
some distance away, and been assured that the 
track ran through the town, I was somewhat sur- 
prised when, an hour after leaving Pocatello, I 
was set down on the platform of a lone station 
out of sight of any other building. 

'' Where is the town ?" I asked. 

" Two miles from here," the agent answered. 

And as I looked around for some conveyance, 
he said there was no regular hack running from 
the station, but that he carried the mail into the 
town on a pony and would send a conveyance for 
me. 

" You will have to lock yourself in while I am 
gone," said he, *' for there are tramps around here 
sometimes : "' and with that precautionary inform- 
ation, he mounted his pon}' and rode away, leav- 
ing me in sole possession. 

An hour afterwards a conveyance arrived, 
but a snow storm had come on in the meantime, 
and on reaching the only hotel in the place, I 



160 A woman's journeyixgs 

found it kept by a Mormon bishop, all the mem- 
bers of whose family, including himself, had 
but just returned from a dancing party and had 
retired precipitantly, not concerning themselves 
about possible guests sufficiently to build a fire. 
They were finally aroused, and after breakfast, I 
found the Methodist pastor, to whom I had been 
directed. 

It was thought best for me to remain over 
Sunday, and as I had never heard a Mormon 
preacher on his ''native heath," I attended the 
Mormon service, which w^as in the afternoon, in 
company with the Methodist pastor. 

Arriving at the church, which was heated— or, 
rather, was not heated— by a small wood-burning 
stove, we found perhaps forty chilled looking per- 
sons assembled, and very soon a half-dozen 
roughly dressed men filed in, and proceeding to a 
platform running across the end of the church, 
took their seats in a row on a bench placed there 
for the purpose. 

The bishop had recovered from his Terpsicho- 
rean dissipation, and opened the meeting by say- 
ing that the sacrarnent would then be partaken 
of, and requesting the choir to sing. As soon as 
the singing began, a boy clad in blue overalls 
grasped a zinc bucket which stood on the plat- 
form, or pulpit, and passed through the congre- 
gation to the door. He soon returned, and, plac- 



IX THE NEW XORTHWEST. 101 

iiig the bucket, now full of water, on the plat- 
form, proceeded to hunt up and rinse out a couple 
of goblets, which he filled by plunging them into 
the bucket and spilling the water over the plat- 
form ; — all quite in keeping with the dismal sur- 
roundings, of sleet outside and the shivering aud- 
ience within. An old gentleman then took a 
plate of bread and passed through the congrega- 
tion, the boy following with the w^ater. 

At the completion of the observance of that 
form, the bishop introduced a Mr. Kimball as the 
speaker to whom we were to listen, and the gen- 
tleman arose. He began by saying that knowl- 
■edge always had been and always would be re- 
vealed to those receiving it, and that in no other 
way than by revelation could any knowledge of 
spiritual matters be acquired. He then cited the 
prophets and spoke of the possibility of ''talking 
with God " as well in modern as in ancient times, 
and seemed in a fair way to soon arrive at the 
''revelations'' of Joseph Smith, when his memory 
evidently failed him, and he rambled in a vain 
search for a revelation that w^oald bring him back 
to his subject. 

Yet, he talked on. The fire went out and the 
children cried, but still he talked ; and w^e were 
obliged to take our departure before he closed his 
remarks. 

Logan, one of the oldest towns in Utah, was 



162 A WOMAN'S JOURNETINGS 

my first stopping place in that territory, and the 
picture it presented in the blue-gold light of the 
Indian summer-like day on which I arrived was 
charming enough to suggest the exclamation, "If 
this be a product of Mormonism, farewell Gen- 
tiles!" 

Wide streets, beautiful and substantial build- 
ings in a wilderness of shade trees, and the white 
turrets of a Mormon temple standing out in bold 
relief from a background of deep blue haze which 
but partially obscured the outlines of a fir-clad 
mountain-side constituted the view that met the 
gaze from a distance, and a nearer approach 
showed well stocked stores and shops teeming- 
with customers, and a remarkable absence of sa- 
loons and drunkenness. 

Missions, established by both the Methodists- 
and Presbyterians, have long existed at Logan, 
and have, without doubt, had their influence 
against Mormonism ; but the town itself, aside 
from the two Gentile churches and school build- 
ings, is the product of Mormon thrift, and the mu- 
nicipal government is controlled by Mormon votes. 
No squalor is anywhere visible, although the pop- 
ulation is about five thousand, and I was told that 
cases of want were very rare. 

"But. what of the women— are they not dread- 
fully treated ? " some one will ask. 

And I answer, ** No.*' 



IX THF ^^EW XORTHWEST. 1 o3 

The burden of hardshi]) was lifted from the 
Mormon women by the abolition of polygamy^ 
and their condition is now no more to be lamented 
over than that of women in general. The United 
States Government made provision for the care of 
such of the polygamous wives as should become 
homeless by the abolishment of polygamy, but 
comparatively few have had to avail themselves- 
of the Government's bounty ; and the Mormon 
women are today the more zealous defenders of 
their faith. 

" But, do these facts show merit in Mormon- 
ism ? "' will be the question asked after reading: 
this apparent eulogy. 

So far as Mor monism is considered as a relig-^ 
ion — a means for the development of the spiritual 
nature, the answer must invariably be ''No:" 
but as a patriarchal form of government, it has^ 
the merit of having taught its people industry,, 
economy, peaceableness and a partial self-denial 
and temperance. Its fatal fault is that it has cul- 
tivated these virtues to a temporal, instead of a 
spiritual, end. Even the little -spirituality Mor- 
monism professes is so tinted with carnality that 
it appears only in a debased form, and is not- 
worthy of consideration. 

But the debasing days are over, and the Lat- 
ter Day Saints will soon be spoken of in the past 
tense. The institution of Mormonism was, prac- 



104 A woman's jourxeyi:n^gs 

tically, founded on and held together by polyg- 
amy, and robbed of that, nothing remains but a 
few forms and ceremonies, from which the peo- 
ple will soon fall away, being prompted to their 
•observance by neither faith nor fear — the first 
jiever having existed, and the last being removed. 

After a visit to Franklin, back across the line 
into Idaho, I proceeded to Ogden, making a short 
•stop and continuing on to Salt Lake City, where 
I met the active W. C. T. U. workers of the Terri- 
tory and held two public meetings. Being enter- 
tained in the hospitable home of Mrs. E. H. Par- 
sons, whose husband, Hon. E. H. Parsons, ii 
United States Marshal for Utah, my stay was 
a very enjoyable one, and I was given an op- 
portunity to judge of the existing state of affairs 
by personal observation. 

One of the first convictions that is forced 
upon the understanding of the observer is that, 
although possessing a good share of dissipation 
and many places for indulgence in intoxi- 
'Cants, Salt Lake City is yet not as bad in that 
respect as many places of its size in the West. 
The habit of temperance in the use of intoxicating 
liquors, so long cultivated by the Mormons, had 
not, I found, entirely lost it? force ; but the fact 
that it was fast becomirg submerged by the in- 
•coming tide propelled by party politics was easy 
<of discernment, and led to a mental query regard- 



IN TH!:; NEW XOliTHWEST. ] 05 

ing the advisability of "jumping out of the fry- 
ing-pan into the fire" by denouncing the Mor- 
mons and indorsing '' Kate Field's party," as tlie- 
Anti-Mormon party is often called in Utah. 

Another thing that confronts the mental vis- 
ion is the surprising picture of the devotees of 
Bacchus arrayed in defense of virtue ! Among 
all the truly intelligent and Christian people with 
whom I had the opportunity of conversing, there 
was perfect unanimity in the opinion that, since 
polygamy had been abolished, there was no more 
to be feared from Mormonism than from several 
other isms extant, and it should be left to the 
usual evangelizing influences ; but the friends of 
the wine cup say " No" to all such reasoning. 

Politicians with faces flushed by intoxicating 
liquor, that great promoter of impurity, will sneer 
at temperance effort, and point with vehemence to 
Mormonism, with such remarks as, "There's 
where your work is needed I If Mormons get into- 
the Government, we're gone ! " 

And these zealous patriots usually end with, 
•• It takes a woman like Kate Field to do the right 
thing." 

And then — well, one dc'cs not feel like envy- 
ing Miss Field her associations^ 

But, all this affectation of zeal for the nation's 
welfare has a cause. Utah is aspiring to state- 
hood, and the object of the politicians is to dis-- 



16G A woman's J0URis"EYlXG6 

tfranchise the Mormons, as has been done in 
Idaho, that their opponents may gain a substan- 
tial and controlling foothold. 

A W. C. T. U. restaurant occupying the lower 
iloor of the headquarters of the Salt Lake City 
Union was in full operation, and efforts were be- 
ing made by Mrs. Parsons, who led the enterprise, 
for its enlargement, that the needy might be 
reached by low prices. Public gospel meetings 
were held at the headquarters every Sunday even- 
ing, and the attendance on the one evening I was 
.there was much larger than the seating capacity ; 
-which showed the interest that had been aroused. 
Miss Harriet E. Turner, president of the Union, 
had adopted the plan of standing at the entrance 
.and inviting passers in ; and many a mother's 
.boy, alone and despondent in a strange land, has 
received a home-like welcome and been cheered 
by kind words at that open door. 

In rambling over the city, I visited the Mor- 
.mon Tabernacle, and obediently walked to the 
farther end while the gentleman in charge 
dropped a pin at the other, to demonstrate the 
wonderful acoustic properties of the audience 
room ; but as I was not near enough to observe 
whether the good brother dropped a pin ar a dol- 
lar, I can only say that my impression was that 
the meeting place of the Saints was more given 
to sound than show ; no attempt at grandeur hav- 
ing been made in its construction. 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. IG? 



CHAPTER XIII. 

^jT^rom Salt Lake City, I went to Evanston, Wy- 
j^^ oming. remaining' over one night and pro- 
'Ceeding to Green River, in the same state. While 
there, where I remained four days, extremely 
cold weather came on, being the first I had expe- 
rienced since leaving the East. Green River is 
among the older of Wyoming towns, but the arid- 
ity of the country is discouraging to enterprise, 
and the place is not prepossessing from any point 
of view. 

Mrs. Dibble, president of the local society, 
and Mrs. R. A. Jones, secretary of the State Un- 
ion, I found to be women of much intelligence, 
but having to work under many disadvantages, 
they had accomplished less than better circum- 
stances would have assured. 

At Rock Springs, fifteen miles east of Green 
River, are large coal mines, the discovery of which 
was the saving of that part of Wyoming from de- 
sertion by settlers, who, having used up the 
sparse timber supply, had no resource left for fuel. 



lOc^ A avoman's jourxf.yixgs 

Exorbitant prices are charged for the coal, which 
is of a good quality, the price per ton being from 
five to eight dolla.rs. while the cost at the mines is 
about seventy-five cents. The railroad company, 
doubtless, receives a large percentage of the 
profit, but that makes little difference to the un- 
fortunate settler who is obliged to pay the bill. 

As the train for Laramie, a long jaunt of two 
hundred and seventy miles, arrived at Rock 
Springs at a very early hour, I stepped into a car 
just at day-break only to find it crowded with 
sleepy passengers, with a few upright figures dis- 
cernible in the dim light, but no vacant seats. 

Immediately a young man. arose and, coming 
forward, grasped my hand and, calling me by 
name, assured me his seat was at my service. 

'• I am one of those who signed the pledge at 
Salt Lake City, and I knew you as soon as you 
came in,*" he said. 

He then sat down on the arm of the seat and 
told me something of his ramblings in the West 
in search of employment, sometimes successful 
and full of hope, but more often despondent over 
the prospect of becoming penniless from lack of 
work and high prices of living, and always miss- 
ing the associations of his home, which he told 
me was in Canada. 

"' But I would get along all right if it were not 
for liquor. Somebody is always asking you to 



IN THE NEW NORTHWEST. 169 

drink in this country, and before you know it, 
you have the habit,*' said he, and further remarked 
that he wished "the women could make the 
laws." 

But I was to hear from the other side. Being 
sadly in need of sleep, 1 was roused from a par- 
tial doze some little time afterwards by the first 
words of the following dialogue : 

Masculine voice— '* We're in the state where 
the women vote." 

Feminine voice—" What state is it ?" 

Masculine voice — "Wyoming! of course. 
Don't you know where the women vote ? " 

Feminine voice — "■ Do the women vote here ? 
I think it's just horrid 1 Do you suppose they all 
do ? "' 

At that point a second female voice broke in 
with the answer, " No, they don't all vote. I've 
lived here fourteen years, and I never voted yet." 

First feminine voice — "I don't see how wo- 
men find lime to do men's work." 

Second feminine voice — " Nor I either. I al- 
ways find enough to do without having anything 
to do with politics." 

After a few further remarks in the same vein, 
the conversation was dropped, but at the end of 
a few minutes the second feminine voice said : 
"John," (yes, dear reader, the name was really 



170 A woman's journeyings 

John), " when we get to Rawlins, I want you to 
go to the store the first thing and get me Hilda ; 
for if you don't you'll forget it." 

" What ? " in a new masculine voice. 

" Hilda ; H-i-1-d-a. It's a novel I hain't had." 

"I thought you'd had about everything." 

" Well, I have ; but this is one I've just heard 
of, and they've got it up to Rawlins." 

As I did not stop at Rawlins, which is a hun- 
dred miles or so from Rock Springs, I saw no 
more of the lady of non-political but literary 
tastes, but I afterwards learned that she was a 
fair specimen of the Wyoming women who do 
not exercise their rights as citizens. 

The future of Wyoming will, I predict, be 
very different from its past. For many years the 
women labored under the disadvantage of being 
out-numbered by the male population, made up 
largely of foreigners, by about nineteen to one, as 
I was informed, and that circumstance, added to 
woman's unavoidable inexperience in govern- 
mental matters, and the hardships of pioneering 
in an extremely hard country, has retarded the 
bringing about of any great results ; but equal 
suffrage has taken deep root, and now that the 
sun has risen on Wyoming, by her being granted 
statehood with an untrammeled population, the 
blossoming and fruit bearing seasons must soon 
follow. 



IX THi;: NEW NORTHWEST. 171 

That the leading men of the state are well 
satisfied with their female comrades in the field of 
politics, was shown by the remark of an old resi- 
dent, a man of much influence in his part of the 
state. 

'*Why," said he, ''we wouldn't have ac- 
€epted statehood without the women. I don't 
know why it is," he continued, "but it has been 
my experience that a woman will vote right 
where a man won't dare to." 

Laramie, which is next in size to Cheyenne, 
the largest city in the state, is an old town, and as 
it is situated in a fertile valley, has nothing of the 
dreariness of appearance possessed by many 
towns on the line of the Union Pacific R. R. To 
a traveler returning to the East, a slight touch of 
the feeling of home-coming is felt at Laramie, 
and the surroundings begin to take on a familiar 
appearance. 

While there I conversed with several gentle- 
men regarding the matter of suffrage, and found 
the cry of the moral part of the male population 
to be, " Why do not the women help us ?" which 
was perplexing as a question, but highly amusing 
as an evidence that woman was no longer looked 
upon as a *' clinging vine," but as the helpmate 
God intended her to be. 

" Why do you allow this cry to go out ? '' I 



l';2 A woman's journeyings 

asked some of the ladies in the state, and the an- 
swer solved the mystery. 

''We are not strong enough in number to 
nominate the candidates we would feel justified 
in voting for, and the best men we have do not 
always help us,'' one lady explained. 

In speaking of a local election, another lady 
said, " There was not a man nominated that a re- 
spectable woman could vote for, and we could not 
get the best men we had to help us nominate the 
candidates we knew were honorable.*' 

The highest altitude on the line of the Union 
Pacific R. R. is reached at Sherman, between 
Laramie and Cheyenne, the elevation being 8247 
feet. A high cairn of rough stones stands, bare 
and uninclosed, on this height at the right of the 
track as one faces eastward, and on inquiry I was 
told it was called the '' Ames Monument," having 
been built to the memory of Oakes Ames, the first 
president of the Union Pacific R. R. The solitude 
of the spot where the cairn stands may be judged 
by the fact that a large wolf slunk away from the 
track and shambled out of sight among the sage 
and rocks just before we reached it. But, doubt- 
less, the angels look down with approval on the 
work of those who loved their leader well enough 
to build that fitting tribute, gathered from the 
wilds through which he first beat a permanent 
highway. 



IX THE NEW NORTH WEST. 173 

At Cheyenne, I found many intelligent and 
earnest women, but the state of affairs sometimes 
before encountered, where the pastors of the 
churches had not yet learned that upon practice 
and faith, and not upon theory and form, rests 
the salvation of human souls, met me at the out- 
set. With the exception of the pastor of the M. 
E. Church, who was absent on my arrival, and 
possibly one or more whom I did not meet, the 
ministers of the city were standing" as stumbling 
blocks in the way of temperance work. As a con- 
sequence of their refusing to act with the W. C. 
T. U., the women were much embarrassed, which 
necessitated m}^ exposing myself in the chilling 
air late at night in a search, with the local presi- 
dent, for a minister who considered the preserva- 
tion of the human body — the ''temple of God" — 
from defilement, a part of Christianity. The re- 
sult was a severe cold, which turned the pleasure 
of meeting the large audience that greeted me in 
the M. E. Church on the second evening after my 
arrival into a stern duty, discharged only by force 
of will. 

On Sunday afternoon, I visited the jail in 
company with members of the Union and found 
the women prisoners occupying the same depart- 
ment as the men. Two colored girls were the 
only female inmates at the time, and as they were 
allowed the liberty of an upper corridor reached 
by steps close to where we stood, I was about to 



174 

ascend and request them to join in the service^ 
when the gentlemanly young official in charge 
checked me in well meant solicitude, and in- 
formed me that they were very immoral women • 
unconsciously ignoring the probability that many 
of his brothers behind the bars, with whom we 
were even then conversing, were the same. 

So, it appeared that the distinction without a 
difference between sin in women and sin in men 
was still standing in the way of an equal equality. 
Kecognizing no such distinction, I invited the wo- 
men, and found them attentive listeners. 



IN THE NEW NOKTHWEST. 175 



CHAPTER XIV. 

nother jaunt of over two hundred miles was 
to bring me to North Platte, Nebraska, and 
as the ''overland flyer" on which I took passage 
bowled down the steep declivity from Cheyenne 
to the Platte River Valley at a rate that caused a 
constant rocking and swaying of the coaches, I 
found the speed fully in harmony w^ith my mood 
as I began to realize that I was at last on the 
Eastern, instead of the Western, Slope, and that 
the unbroken wanderings of a year and seven 
months, with their hardships and pleasures, would 
soon be over. 

The last scene of the panorama of lone brown 
plains, snow-capped mountains, bunch grass 
ranches, immense wheat fields, water scenery, 
deep forests, moss, sand drifts, sage brush and 
calcined cliffs was swiftly running out, and be- 
fore I realized the significance of the rapid change 
in landscape, I sa^v wide, level plains, straight 
fences, orderly looking farm houses in cultivated 
groves, and a general appearance of enterprise 
and prosperity. 



176 A WOMAN'S JOURNEYIXCtS 

Being obliged to remain at North Platte four 
days, I made some inquiries concerning the hard- 
ships from crop failures in Nebraska, and found 
that the new settlers in the northwestern counties 
had been the principal sufferers. 

'^ Those counties are much higher than it is 
here, and the higher you go, the less rain falls," 
explained a gentleman with whom I conversed on 
the subject. 

But there were no signs of suffering in the 
Platte River Valley, which, with the valley of the 
.North Platte, makes up a wide strip of country 
running the entire length of the state from west 
to east, and in which crops are very seldom a fail- 
ure. 

Missing Kearney by reason of delay at North 
Pia'te, I visited the small towns of Gibbon and 
Shelton before reaching Grand Island, which is a 
city of ten thousand inhabitants. There, Mrs. R. 
T. W. Pierce, sister of Judge Samuel Wood, who 
was brutally murdered in Kansas, took me over 
the entire city, which was in the bustle of prepa- 
ration for the holidays and presented a very East- 
ern appearance. 

Clark's, Silver Creek, Columbus, Schuyler and 
North Bend completed the list of stopping points 
before reaching Fremont, the home of Mrs. M. A. 
Hitchcock, president of the Nebraska W. C. T. U., 
and also the location of a fine W. C. T. U. temple, 



IN THE NEW XORTKWEST. 177 

-erected by contributions from different parts of 
the state. 

Notwithstanding Nebraska's large foreign 
population, I nowhere met with the obtuseness of- 
ten encountered in town to town journeying, but 
found a remarkable degree of intelligence among 
the women throughout the state. The W. C. T. 
U., through its president, Mrs. Hitchcock, was 
the first to hear and heed the cry of want from 
the sufferers in the dry districts, and through its 
efforts, in first calling on the white ribboners of 
the nation for aid, and then receiving and distrib- 
uting the supplies, relief was given. 

The moral part of the population of the state 
had not yet recovered from its defeat by the forces 
of evil in the campaign that had just passed, how- 
ever, and in no place was that fact more apparent 
than in Omaha, the headquarters from which had 
emanated the covert ways and vile schemes that 
had made the defeat possible. There, the more 
timid of the defeated, instead of floating their 
banners from the ^' topmost roofs " and thus insur- 
ing recognition, had, apparently, fallen into the 
error of conciliating an unworthy foe, and were 
maintaining a self-imposed obscurity. 

Communication having been had with the su- 
perintendent of the Department of Social Purity 
of the State Union, who resided in Omaha, I went 
to her residence on arriving and was pleasantly 



. 178 A woman's journeyings 

surprised to find in her Mrs. G. W. Clark, formerly 
of Cleveland, O., and still possessing the ''never 
surrender " spirit of the Crusade. Having charge 
of the "Open Door," an institution for unfortu- 
nate women, established by the Buckingham W. 
C. T. U., of Omaha, but supported largely by the 
locals throughout the state, she was doing a great 
work in her department ; and wherever the 
''spirit of fear" had not taken possession, there 
seemed to be no obstacle in the way of advance- 
ment. 

The holidays had come and gone before I 
reached Omaha, but the severe winter weather 
that had come with them gave promise of remain- 
ing, and as I journeyed over the Northwestern 
R. R. to Chicago, I realized that the season for 
sight-seeing was past. After remaining two days^ 
in the latter city, I started on the last stage of 
journey ings amounting to over nine thousand 
miles, reaching Cleveland on January 12th, 1892, 
a year and over ei^ht months from the time of 
going out. 

The impossibility of mentioning by name the 
many pastors of churches who gave willing as- 
sistance in many ways, and the great number of 
women both in and out of the white ribbon army 
who aided my work by various acts of kindness, 
which are all garnered in my memory, is too ap- 
parent for explanation to be necessary ; but to the 



lif THE NEW KORTHWEST. HO' 

following, I wish herein to express my fullest 
gratitude for special favors : 

Mr. Tom D. Campbell, of Cleveland, 0., Dis- 
trict Passenger Agent of the Northern Pacific R, 
R., with whom fairness and courtesy are evident- 
ly a part of business, and whose thoroughness in 
the discharge of the duties of his office has saved 
me much trouble. 

The Officers and Agents of the Union Pacific 
R. R , who willingly granted favors, and kindly 
imparted helpful information. 

Rev. John N. Denison, formerly of Port 
Townsend, Wash., but now of Portland, Ore., for 
letters of introduction and assistance in making, 
appointments. 

Captain Morgan, of Port Townsend, Wash. 

The Officers of the Northwestern R. R. 

Mrs. N. E. De Spain, of Pendleton, Ore., whose 
rare concern for my comfort was like the '' shad- 
ow of a great rock in a weary land." 

Rev. O. C. Billings, Oxford, Idaho. 

Dr. Orpha D. Baldwin, E. Portland, Ore., who 
received and forwarded my correspondence, 
reaching me promptly and accurately with mail 
matters in all the highways and byways, thus 
saving me much perplexity. 

Mrs. Noah Cornutt, Riddle's, Ore., the latch- 
string of whose home was always on the outside^ 



i'8G A WOMAX'S JOtJRI^'EYlNGS 

In conclusion I will say that one of the great- 
•est needs of the New Northwest is such settlers 
as wish to make homes. It has no need for spec- 
ulators—it has enough. The professions, also, 
are overrun ; but those who wish to make homes, 
which are the great need of the American nation, 
need not fear to go out and seek them ; for the 
opportunities are numberless. Two things are 
always to be considered in selecting a home, and 
those are, water and fuel. West of the Cascade 
Mountains, there is no lack of either, and there 
are yet many, many thousands of acres unsur- 
veyed by the Government, and, consequently, not 
yet on the market. Land near either the railroad 
or water transportation is much preferable to any 
other, as isolation from society and distance to 
/markets must be considered. 



THE END. 



